The adventures of Macharius
by son-goku5
Summary: The adventure comes to an end. The final chapter is up. Enjoy. R&R please
1. Chapter 1

_Hey guys. This is my first fanfic for Warhammer so don't be mad if it's ugly _

_Revies are appreciated, flames will be ignored :-P_

_Don't mind mistakes, I'm german and it can happen _

_**Chapter 1: The end is the beginning**_

_Location: System XE34127_

_Date: 243.M42_

Lance turrets were blazing back and forth in a ballet of light and destruction, macro cannon shells were plunging through armor and bodies, starfighters and bombers flying between city-sized Battleships. He saw pilots die, crews, fellow members on his own ship and his fleet. His enemy was outnumbering him. He saw demon faces on the ships of the enemy, the fleet of the great foe of mankind . . . CHAOS. He was sitting in the captain's chair of the Retribution class battleship _Revenge of Cadia_, overseeing the battle as it waged back and forth.

His own fleet, containing several ships of all classes. Suddenly the Lunar Class Cruiser _Selonias Pride_ on his right side exploded in a bright flash, its debris colliding with his own ship.

"Sensors, which enemy ship destroyed the Lunar?"

"The enemy's flagship, Sir. The _Interminable Fear_."

He shivered. That ship was well-known to the fleets of the whole Segmentum Obscurus. During the 13th black crusade, it and its accompanying fleet destroyed a lot of convoys and battleships.

"I want that ship dead. Helm, bring us around. Prepare broadside."

With the elegance of a mountain the mighty ship turned slowly, bringing its huge amount of deadly weapons onto his enemy.

"Admiral, the Desolator turns too. It seems they had the same idea."

"Then turn faster so we can shoot first."

During the longest seconds of his life, the ship finished its turn. So did the Desolator.

"FIRE".

In a brilliant flash of light his Retribution fired. The lance turrets hit the Desolators void shields, stripping them off completely. The weapon batteries ripped out armor and internal structure, killing a few weapon batteries too. But he could sense that it wasn't enough to save his already weakened ship from destruction if the Desolator fired.

"Torpedoes!" yelled the sensor officer.

"Where from?"

"Behind us. Friend foe indication shows they're from one of our escorts, targeted on the _Interminable Fear_".

But it was too late. As the torpedoes passed by the _Revenge of Cadia_, the Desolator fired its broadside. He felt as if he was lifted in the air as the fire struck in. The next words from the technical officer seemed to be far away for his ears.

"Damage on all decks. Fire in the backboard ammunition magazines."

He didn't need to hear it. He could feel his ship dying. On the main screen he saw the torpedoes of the escort striking home on the Desolator. A giant explosion ripped it apart, the prow even piercing into one of the Styx Cruisers that appeared next to it, shredding it into half. This was the last he saw as his ship exploded beneath him, sending a shockwave of fire through the bridge, killing everyone including himself.

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_Location: Somewhere close the eye of terror_

_Date: unknown_

_He was old. Very old. Older than the universe itself. He sat on his throne, seeing a complex structure of timelines and possibilities like a spider's web in front of him. So many plans, so many ploys. He always manipulated everyone in order to maintain and enlarge his own power and the power of his master. He was Aemos. A Changer of Ways. Possibly the oldest demon of Tzeentch existing. If there is a true Demon Prince, it's him. Many other lesser Demons tried to usurp his position. All who tried failed and their essence dissolved._

_His realm was close directly to the eye of terror. When Slaanesh was born, his birth cry opened a passage between the warp and the real space, creating a region of true chaos. In the warp, 8 different dimensions existed. In real space, there were four. But here, they combined to mind-tormenting 12 dimensions. Here he felt safe and here, no one could harm him._

_He could see into the future. He had always fun to get into the way of his gods rivals. One knot of the web highly interested him. He saw a loose alliance between all powers of chaos to help a former elite soldier fighting the Imperium of mankind. Even with the powers united, the Imperium will somehow prevail. He threw that aside. More interesting was what was lying beyond that knot. With the purpose gone the united powers split up again. And one champion of the god of war would mount a search for an artifact that could turn the tide in the everlasting battle between the powers of the warp. And after realizing what this Champion was looking for Aemos for the first time in uncounted millennia experienced an emotion largely unknown to him… fear._

_He couldn't let that happen. Thinking about numerous possibilities, he started planning to disturb this petty little champion when the time came. All he needed was the help of several individuals of different races, especially one who was an heir to one of their greatest heroes._

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_Location: Cypra Mundi Naval Academy_

_Date: 175.M42_

With a sudden shock, he woke up. Cold sweat was running down his spine as he felt the shocking images of his dream fade away. He got up, went into the bathroom to get some refreshment. Today was his last day on Cypra Mundi. He finished his naval officers training as second best in his class. He felt so relieved it was over.

When he saw himself in the mirror, he saw the lines of his ancestors. He was Maximilian Macharius. Most of his ancestors were famous especially one of them. The one who freed a thousand worlds for the Imperium in a few years. The one who set a mark for his heirs. The one with whom everyone would measure him to.

Lord Solar Macharius.

Today was the day he would be assigned to command a ship. He didn't know which one. If he had been the best in his class he would have been assigned to a cruiser but even though he was second he didn't know what awaited him.

"Well, I will see" he told himself.

It was 30 minutes to waking time so he decided to shower, breakfast and get dressed to make a good impression to his superiors.

_2 hours later, Cypra Mundi naval academy, assignments office_

"Welcome, Mr. Macharius."

He knew this voice. Admiral Schmidt, out of active duty after 40 years of service to the emperor in Battlefleet Obscurus. He knew that Schmidt fought in the 13th Black Crusade, being reassigned from retirement to lead a battleship into service after its crew had died to a plaque. After the war, which wasn't really over yet and surely won't be over for decades or even centuries he retired again and went back to teach at the academy.

"Congratulations. You were second best in your class. You make your family proud of you and show that you really are a Macharius."

'_Yeah right', _ he thought.

As a Macharius nothing but being the very best was expected from him and he failed to do so.

"Thank you, Admiral" was the only thing he could say.

"I know that you feel bad because you weren't the best as it was expected from you" the Admiral said as if being able to read his mind. "but you don't have to be ashamed of it. You followed my career I guess?"

Maxim nodded. How couldn't he not have followed the admiral's career? His strategies and tactical records were required readings at the academy. His successes even against enemies with superior numbers were legendary.

"Yes Sir."

"Good. But do you know what my ranking was at the end of my naval education?"

"No."

"Then guess."

Maxim thought. He must have been at least in the top ten. Noone lower becomes captain of a battleship quickly, sometimes never.

"I guess you were . . . 3rd?"

Schmidt shook his head and smiled.

"Guess again."

"You were at least in the top ten."

Schmidt shook his head again.

"Last try."

"Okay, but you were at least in the top twen . . . thirty".

Schmidt laughed and fixed Maxim directly.

"You see, if they teach you stuff from heroes and legends they mostly miss some information. We were 102 in our class and I graduated as 55th."

Maxim could just stand there, shocked.

_55th_? _And he became captain of an emperor class battleship after only 15 years. Then maybe I'll become the captain of a great and mighty battleship too_.

Then he remembered his dream. Was it an omen of his future. Being the captain of a retribution class battleship and the commander of a whole battlefleet fighting Chaos. But then again, he died fighting Chaos. Suddenly his future as a battleship captain wasn't so great after all. Schmidt saw his thoughtful face.

"You see you don't have to be the best to become a great captain. That reminds me of our business here. To make a long story short, from this day on you are promoted to the rank Lieutenant Commander and assigned to the Cobra destroyer _Sharpened Teeth_ of the Snappish Dog squadron as its Captain."

Now Maxim was really shocked. A Cobra destroyer? A ship class known for being quickly destroyed in big battles? That'd mean assignments to patrols and pirate hunting.

"Admiral, may I ask you a question?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"What was your first assignment after you graduated?"

Schmidt smiled again.

"I became second officer of a Firestorm frigate. But back to business. Tomorrow, a task force arrives here for repairs and refitting. Your new ship is a part of it. The former Captain was severely injured and is unable to command his ship anymore. You will introduce yourself to him and the crew. For your first mission, he will accompany you to give you advise if needed. Dismissed"

_The next day_

On the screens Maxim saw the task force arriving. According to the records it contained of a Mars battlecruiser, the _Arbiter_, the flagship, accompanied by 3 Lunar class cruisers, the _Innocent, Tyrant_ and _Fearsome_, a squadron of 3 Firestorm Frigates, the _Overheaters_ and 3 squadrons of 4 Cobra destroyers each, named _Tarantula, Potent_ and _Snappish Dog_.

The screen showed a Mars battlecruiser, 2 Lunars, 3 Firestorms and 9 Cobras.

Going by the logs, the task force was on patrol to fight orc raiders and seeing the damage of the ships and the casualties they suffered it must have been a tough fight. As soon as the ships docked he went to the _Sharpened teeth_, looking for the captain. When he couldn't find him, he went to the weapons officer instead.

"Where is the captain?"

"He just was transferred to the medical lab of the station. He was injured during the last battle. You are his replacement, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. How went the fight?"

"Pretty good actually. We were heavily outnumbered though. We destroyed many of their ships and had few casualties. Mostly due to the orc ships rarely creating good tactics to fight a fleet that sticks together. If you want to know more details, check the logs. You can use the computer over there."

Maxim went to the machine the crewman pointed at. He accessed the files he looked for and checked the data.

The task force lost a Lunar, the _Firestorm_, 3 Cobras, nearly all lightnings, half of the bombers, the other 2 Lunars have lost weapon turrets and the Mars suffered armor damage. But it wasn't much compared to the losses the orcs had. Their whole fleet consisted of a Kill Kroozer, 4 Terror Ships, 3 Onslaught Attack Ships, 6 Savage Gunships, 16 Ravager Attack Ships and 4 Brute Ram Ships. Their losses were 2 Terrors, one Onslaught, 3 Savages, 9 Ravagers and all Ram Ships.

Maxim was impressed. That was a battle hardened taskforce with a good body count on enemy ships. He would have to work hard to keep up with them and getting on their level to prove himself to them.

"What kind of person is the captain?"

The technicus thought about that.

"He is a good man. He demands a lot of the crew, you know, discipline and so on but he also treats you well if you don't do everything wrong. You will understand when the crew has some doubts concerning your abilities."

_Hm, that could be interesting_' "I will head off and study the data slates about the fleet and their crews."

With these words he turned on his heels and went off.

_2 weeks later_

It were 2 busy weeks. The ships have quickly been repaired, the replacement for the lost ships have arrived with an additional squadron of Cobras, the _Larsons pride_, two new squadrons of 3 Firestorms each, the O_rckillers_ and _Orchunters_, famous for their successes against the greenskins. The biggest surprise for Maxim was the arrival of 2 Lunar class cruisers instead of one, the _Convention_ and the _Silvermoon, _adding more firepower to the task force.

_Sector command must really be annoyed with the orcs, assigning such a force to a hunt._

Rumors said, there were even more ships on the way to be added to the fleet. Something big must be coming. From the speakers came the voice of Commander Romm, the stations commander.

"All crew members of task force Orcish Nemesis to their ships. The fleet is embarking in 30 minutes. I repeat, all crew members of task force Orcish Nemesis to their ships."

Maxim made his way to the lift, went to the docking bay and on his ship.

_10 minutes later_

Maxim entered the bridge of the Sharpened Teeth and went to the captain's chair, finding it occupied by an old man with a lot of bandages around many parts on his body.

"Captain Ramone? I'm Lieutenant Commander Maximilian Macharius, I'm here to replace you in command of this ship."

A rasping voice answered him.

"Welcome aboard Lieutenant Commander. I assume you made yourself familiar with the ship and the crew."

"Yes Sir."

The captain pressed two buttons on his chairs arm rest and two servitors helped him up.

"As you can see, the duty for the emperor can be a pain, but as long as I kill his enemies I do it. Now take your seat and assume control of your ship. Oh, and please call me Zorak."

"Okay … Zorak. Only if you call me Maxim."

Before Ramone could reply to that the communications officer spoke up.

"Captain, we're getting a signal from Admiral Sirius, the fleet moves out."

Maxim took a deep breath and gave his first order of his new command.

"You heard the man, on your stations. Gentleman, we're moving out."

And they moved, 27 ships at all. A voice appeared on the speakers.

"Admiral Sirius to all ships . We have some unfinished business with the orcs. We're going back to the Accamar System to kill some greenskins. Reconnaissance states that the fleet we encountered is still in the system. We'll beat them there and search for their base. Be on your guard. We're heading to war again. Sirius out."

And so, 27 ships headed into the warp, ready for action. And on one of them was Lieutenant Commander Maximilian Macharius, watching the line of ships and thinking

'_Soon'._

_End of Chapter 1._


	2. Chapter 2

**_Chapter 2: First blood_**

_1 week after departure. The fleet is about to emerge out of the warp into the Accamar system. _

Maximilian Macharius was sitting in the Captain's chair, feeling the excitement rising in his nerves. Images of his dream flickered into his mind, images of death and destruction. His thoughts were interrupted by Ramone.

"Nervous?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's normal since it's your first fight. Don't worry I'm sure it will go well. We'll kick some orcish butt today."

Before he could answer, a gong sounded, indicating upcoming warp exit. He put his straps on while a servitor called out in a monotonous voice.

"Emerging from warp in 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 … now."

A slight rumbling of the ship marked the point where they re-emerged into the material universe.

"Sensors to full capacity. Let's see if we find some Orc."

"Captain, a signal from the Arbiter. They found the orcish fleet. It's close to the asteroid field."

There was a general excitement on the bridge for the upcoming battle only to be interrupted by a sensor servitor.

"Capital ship emerging from the warp behind us, identified as Dictator class cruiser Steadyness."

A broadband signal came in from the newly arrived ship.

"This is the Steadyness. We're here by order of the sector command to supply more attack craft to the battle. Intelligence assumes orc roks in the asteroid field, hence a lot more enemy fighters."

The Steadyness lined in into the fleet, matching the speed with the rest of the fleet.

"Admiral Sirius to all ships. Decrease your speed to 25. We don't want them notice us too quickly. All ships ready torpedoes. "

They were moving slowly towards the orc fleet in a tight front, the capital ships in the middle, the escorts right and left. Apart from the Firestorms, every ship could fire torpedoes at the enemy.

"Targets on screen."

There they were. Maxim watched in awe as he saw the complete orc fleet. The auspex checked the ship classes with the database and put the names below the ships. Two Kill Kroozas, four Terror Ships, seven Onslaughts, ten Gunships and three Ravagers. Luckily there were no Ram Ships and only 3 of these ships had crude but in some cases effective torpedo launchers.

While they approached the Orc fleet, the Arbiter shot with its own Nova cannon, hitting the flank of a Terror Ship, cleanly breaking it apart. The debris of the explosion hit the surrounding orc ships, damaging a Ravager in a hail of sharp pieces of metal and green body parts. Some debris must have punched through because air was coming out of the side of the ship. If the orc fleet hadn't noticed the imperial ships yet, they surely had now.

"Sensors, when will we be in range?"

"Captain we reached torpedo range two seconds ago. We're waiting for the signal from the Arbiter."

"Signal from the Arbiter." That came from the comm officer.

"On the speakers."

"This is Admiral Sirius. Ship wise we number now two ships more than the orcs. Let us use our long range advantage in torpedoes. Target the Terror Ships first. Exact targets for each ship will follow right away. Praise the emperor."

Maxim wondered about the Admiral's choice of targets.

"Why is he targeting the Terrors first and not the Kill Kroozas or Ravagers?" he asked Ramone. "They could get extremely dangerous if they get close."

The former captain gave a rasping sound that seemed to be a laugh.

"Think about it Maxim. What do the Terrors have what the other Orc ships don't have?"

"Fighterbombers." Maxim suddenly realized. If the Terrors could be destroyed before their attack craft were out completely, the imperial fleet would have a big advantage over the orcs.

"Admiral Sirius to all ships. Fire on my mark. 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 … FIRE!"

The whole fleet fired its torpedoes as one displaying a discipline only known to the fleets of mankind. An astonishing number of 94 of them flew towards the orcish fleet, which was already starting their fighterbombers to intercept them. The Nova cannon took another shot, this time on one of the Kill Kroozas, hitting it directly in its 'mouth'. A secondary explosion and a look on the scanners confirmed the destruction of the port weapons. Meanwhile, the _Arbiter's_ and _Steadyness_' fighters started, half of them providing a protection screen around the fleet while the other half moved in the shadows of the torpedoes' exhaust towards the enemy.

After the torpedoes made three quarters of the way to the orc fleet, enemy fighterbombers intercepted them. Moving out of the shadow of the torpedoes, the imperial fighters met the orcs head on, destroying many of them before they could react while the bombers stayed in the shadow of the torpedoes engine exhaust, making them almost impossible to target for the primitive orc sensors.

The orc ships opened fire on the torpedoes, hoping to destroy as much as possible before they could impact. On the bridge of the _Sharpened Teeth_, Maxim Macharius watched the battle with awe. He saw the lights blazing around the torpedoes as orc gunners tried to destroy them. He saw the deadly ballet of dogfights between the imperial and orc craft. He saw 3 Ravager Gunships, shooting their torpedoes at the imperial fleet, no doubt on the Arbiter. He saw the Nova Cannon striking another blow at the Kill Krooza it shot at before, this time setting it on fire, crippling it. All this happened in less than 10 seconds.

"Enemy torpedoes incoming." Came from the sensor station.

"Where are they targeted at?"

"The Arbiter, all of them. Signal from Admiral Sirius, our squadron and squadron Tarantula are ordered to the Arbiter to provide forward support with anti ordnance guns against the enemy torpedoes and bombers."

"Helm, bring us to the Arbiter. Comm, signal the rest of the squadron to follow us. But don't move in front of the Arbiter when it fires the Nova." Maxim ordered. 8 cobras moved into the heart of the imperial formation, providing a screen of defensive fire against enemy fighterbombers. Meanwhile the imperial torpedoes struck home. Of the 94 torpedoes fired in the first salvo 23 were destroyed by fighterbombes and anti-ordnance turrets while 7 had malfunctions. The rest hit the enemy in a devastating blow.

Each terror ship was hit by 12 torpedoes and all of them were utterly destroyed. The other 16 torpedoes of squadron Potent hit the remaining Kill Krooza, doing the same to it as the other torpedoes have done to the Terrors. On the bridge of the _Sharpened Teeth_ cheers and thanks to the emperor were heard as well as on every other ship of the fleet for the success of their tactics and strength.

"Admiral Sirius to fleet. Prepare for another torpedo volley. Target the onslaughts. Target details for every ship and squadron follow after this message. After the salvo, it's fire at will."

Again at once every ship capable of it fired its torpedoes at the enemy. The Nova cannon fired again, hitting a Savage and tearing it apart.

"Sensors, what's the status of the orc fleet?" Maxim asked.

"9 Savages left, 7 Onslaughts, 3 Ravagers. Most of their fighterbombers are already destroyed, half of our fighters too though. Our Marauders are attacking the Ravagers."

'_Well, that's a good thing'_, thought Maxim. At least they are too distracted now to shoot torpedoes at us. Suddenly a sensor servitor spoke up.

"Marauders report heavy fire coming in from a few asteroids as well as many fighterbombers."

"It seems we have found a few roks" Ramone said smiling.

'_The Admiral had obviously seen them too'_ Maxim thought after approximately 90 of the fighters of the protective screen around the capital ships departed and flew towards the newly arrived fighterbombers. Without a figherscreen to intercept them, the imperial torpedoes went in nearly complete, only 4 were lost to malfunctions. When they got close, the orc ships opened fire with all they got and their fire was accurate enough to destroy 58 torpedoes.

Maxim watched the torpedoes striking at their targets again. The first Onslaught was hit by 6 torpedoes, killing it. The second Onslaught caught 4 missiles, destroying its engines and front weapons. The third Onslaught was hit by 1 torpedo, doing nothing more than a little armor damage. The fourth and fifth were hit by 5 torpedoes each, destroying them as well. The 11 remaining torpedoes all hit in the sixth Onslaught shredding it into such small pieces that every single crew member of the fleet from captain to slave ganger in the weapon batteries could take one home. To add up to the destruction of the orc fleet, the Arbiters Nova Cannon killed another Savage. Maxim now saw the remains of the orc fleet moving towards them.

"Orc ships closing in" came the obvious message from the sensor station.

"Prepare for close fighting. Hail the rest of the squadron and squadron Tarantula. We're going into the asteroid field to face the roks. Tell the crew to reload the torpedo tubes as fast as possible."

The 8 cobras headed into the asteroid field using them as cover from the rok weapons batteries. Behind them, the remaining Onslaught and Savage Gunships were clashing with the Imperial ships. The Marauder bombers destroyed one of the Ravagers and were working on the remaining two while the Lightnings were pretty much keeping the fighterbombers at bay. Maxim couldn't see much on the sensors for they were blocked by the asteroids.

"Found highly unstable radioactive material in one of the roks." came the monotonous voice from one of the sensor servitors.

Ramone smiled again and spoke up. "Maxim, during your lectures of great battles, did they mention one that happened during the Gothic War? Where a man called Leoten Semper, who by the way was the captain of a ship named after the founder of your lineage, when he found an orc rok made from highly unstable material?"

Now Maxim smiled too. "That will be interesting. Comm, hail the Arbiter. Tell them what we found and ask them nicely if they can get a good shot on that rok with their Nova Cannon."

There was no verbal answer, just a blow of energy from the Nova Cannon that struck the rok in the 'front'. As Maxim hoped and expected, the radioactive material went off. The whole rok was torn apart, its shockwave pushing the other roks against other asteroids in the field, damaging them to various degrees. Then the cobras came out of their cover, firing torpedos at still functional roks, dodging their return fire and going into hiding again. The game of hide and seek began.

_6 hours later_

After hunting down several of the damaged roks, the fight was over. The fleet had destroyed the last of the orc ships. The orcs themselves had attacked in their usual self destructing manner causing the imperial fleet to lose a Lunar Cruiser, the _Innocent,_ to a ram attack by a Savage gunship, a Firestorm and 3 cobras. Not to mention three quarters of all their fighters and half of the bombers.

The orcs lost their whole fleet and several roks. All in all, a very successful campaign. The fleet was about to emerge back into the warp back to Cypra Mundi for repairs and refitting.

"This is the _Steadyness_. It was an honor to fight with you. We are ordered to stay here for patrol duty in the asteroid field to look for more ork rocs. Cobra squadron _Larsons pride_ will stay here in case a bigger orc ship comes out. _Steadyness_ out."

"Admiral Sirius to fleet. Into formation and head for the jump point. We're heading back to Cypra Mundi for repairs and refitting and new orders. In my report I mention everyone positive especially the crews of the Cobra squadrons _Snappish Dog_ and _Tarantula_ for their work against the roks inside the field. Admiral Sirius out."

Six hours later the fleet was in the warp again, heading for their home base. On the bridge of the _Sharpened Teeth_, Maxim Macharius ended his shift and went to bed. What will await him in his future? Will he fight in even more glorious battles against Chaos or Eldar? More orc hunting? Or will he end up patrolling quite sectors and escorting convoys? With these thoughts, Maxim fell asleep, dreaming of great battles and more successes against the enemies of the emperor.

_End of Chapter 2_

_To be continued_


	3. Chapter 3

**_Chapter 3: Setbacks_**

_Personal log of Maximilian Macharius, Captain of the _Sharpened TeethSnappish Dog_ squadron._

'_It has been a year since our tremendous victory at Accamar where we have beaten a large orc fleet with very few losses. Our fleet was split up for small patrol duties and convoy escorts. It has become a boring routine to escort freighters and transports or flying through the depths of space searching for the Imperium's enemies. At least we destroyed a few more orcs. Seems to be my fate to kill greenskins. But I may face other aliens soon. Reports are in that Dark Eldar ships were seen in this subsector. It will be a challenge to fight them since they are very fast movers and hard to hit. For this escort our squadron, cobra squadron _Virgo_ and Firestorm squadron _Tailspin_ are ordered to escort a large supply convoy to the near Forge World of Vortex Binaris with me as commanding officer.'_

The 8 Cobras and 3 Firestorm frigates moved along the dozen transports in a protective formation. The tension was high. Eldar had been seen in this system, and they surely would attack this one too and they rarely gave mercy. Maxim just hoped he would survive.

_2 hours later_

"I have 6 Eldar ships on the sensors, escort size." The sensor officer yelled out. "Their holofields makes it hard to identify the classes."

"Macharius to all ships. Change course towards the Eldar ships. All cobras, ready torpedoes, full spread. Firestorms, stand behind us to fire Lances before the torpedoes hit."

Maxim saw the ships go into attack formation. He was afraid. He couldn't see the eldar ships on the screen and on the sensor screen they were named unidentified. As the ships closed in on each other identification became possible. As if ordered to, the sensor officer spoke up again.

"Ship identified as Hellebore class frigates."

Maxim frowned. This ship class was known for its speed and deadliness. He tried to remember what he learned about these ships in the academy. Prow pulsar lance, prow weapons battery and Keel torpedoes. Very fast, manoeuvrable, one the most heavily armed escort ship class existing in the known universe. He could feel the anxiety rising on the bridge as they moved closer and closer.

_10 minutes later_

"Incoming torpedoes." the sensor officer shouted.

"Evasion manoeuvres. Keep the eldar targeted."

"Too late!"

With a sudden crash the ship shuddered aside, its engines failing.

"Damage report!" Maxim demanded.

"We were hit by a torpedo above the engines. They are not destroyed but all the circuits and couplers are destroyed. We can't move and weapons are out too. We're as good as dead."

Maxim banged his hand on his armrest. He couldn't think of anything to do now. Only one thing was left.

"All position lights out, we're playing dead now" He said with a sigh

"But captain" the weapons officer spoke up "we have to help our comrades."

"How could we? We have no weapons, no engines, no void shields, no freakin' anything. If we are lucky, the eldar won't recognize us as still alive so we can fight them another day."

No one replied. Still Maxim felt like a traitor to his comrades. On the screen he saw the eldar ships moving between the remaining cobras and firestorms, killing one after another. Once a firestorm hit an eldar ship but with no visible effect. In less than 30 minutes it was over. Maxim watched with tears in his eyes the deaths of his fellow squadron and the others. Then he saw the eldar moving to the convoy their lance weapons crippling the engine of each ship.

"Captain, I think they want to board the convoy ships."

"I know. They loot them, take the crew as slaves and when they are finished, they destroy them."

During the next 2 hours, Maxim saw that he was right. One after another the eldar boarded the ships and destroyed them right after. After that, they disappeared.

"Macharius to enginarium. Can you repair the ship so we can move again?"

"No" came the reply "we'll never be able to make it without proper spare parts. The warp engine is critically damaged. We need a few weeks in a repair dock to fix it."

Maxim sighed again and did the only thing he could do now.

"Comm, hail Vortex. We need a space hauler of some sort to carry us to the next dock if it's possible at all."

The comm. officer hurried to execute the captain's order.

_30 minutes later_

Maxim was down. The received answer was depressing. They'd send a ship to recover the crew, but there were no resources free right now to get the cobra (it'd take weeks or even months) instead the crew would be split up and put on other ships to replace losses.

_3 days later_

The shuttle was there. Big enough for the whole crew. They were ordered to report on Cypra Mundi for debriefing and reallocation of the crew. Maxim wondered if he has to report to Admiral Schmidt again. Report to have failed. He wondered what kind of ship awaited him this time. Another escort? A transport? He sighed. Useless to worry about that now. He'd see to this when the time came.

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_Aemos watched with pleasure as his plan turned successfully. The ship of his chosen human tool had been destroyed as planned and now he could engage the next phase of his plan. With this in mind he sent the space hulk he had been holding out of the warp into the Agrippinaa system. The rest was the task of the weak humans._

_To be continued_


	4. Chapter 4

**_Chapter 4: Rise_**

_Personal log of Captain Maximilian Macharius, currently without command._

'_Currently I'm sitting on hot coals. After I arrived on Cypra Mundi, I was sent to my bunk and ordered to stay there until I'm summoned. A nice description for being locked away in a slightly comfortable cell. Word has it that Admiral Schmidt personally took my case. Now I sit here and I can do nothing but sit around, check the navy and army news and examine the last battle against the Eldar pirates._

It was 3 am when the call came. A guard stepped into his bunk and more or less violently shook him awake.

"Macharius, the Admiral wants to see you now" he said in a harsh tone. "You have 5 minutes to clean up and get dressed."

Maxim was too tired to retort to this show of disrespect before his rank. After 3 minutes and 38 seconds he was standing cleaned and dressed before the guards again.

"Let's go."

They took the elevator to the Admiral's office. Admiral Schmidt's office was spartanic furnished, with a desk and 3 chairs in front of it. On the wall where pictures of the ships he had command of during his service. A Firestorm frigate, an Overlord battlecruiser and the Admirals last command, an Emperor class battleship.

"Mr. Macharius, if you're done staring at my pictures, you're allowed to sit down and relax."

After Maxim did what the Admiral ordered, he saw a smile on the Admirals face.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to eat you. We're not Orks. All kidding aside, I have your new assignment here. And to be honest, many of my colleagues were against this. Oh, in case you didn't notice yet, I was called back to service for some reason."

"Yes Admiral" Maxim said. He was a little bit dumbfounded and didn't know what to say. Normally he would stand straight and his eyes would be fixed on a dot on the wall but sitting he didn't know what to do.

"I like you, Maxim. Is it okay that I call you Maxim?" Maxim nodded. "Thanks" Schmidt continued. "Now, a little lesson in recent history. 3 months ago, a large space hulk fell out of the warp in the Agripinaa system. The local administrator called for Space Marine support to investigate the hulk, founding out that it was empty. The hulk was towed into orbit around the moon and the Mechanicus started investigating. And they found ships."

Maxim sat up. He had an idea where this meeting was leading to.

"Yes, you heard me. Ships. They were able to free at least 7, maybe more, ships from the hulk, with mostly intact hulls and engines. They only needed a general overhaul. They got mostly small ships from it, but 2 were capital sized. A Lunar class cruiser and a Mars class battlecruiser."

"ATTENTION!" The order came so sudden that Maxim was already on his feet before even the echo of the command died off. Schmidt's tone took a formal note as if reciting a speech already given several times.

"By order of Battlefleet Obscurus high command, you, Maxim Macharius, are hereby promoted to Commander and ordered to take over command of the newly commissioned Battlecruiser _Resilient_."

Maxim almost fell down. A Battlecruiser? He just lost a Cobra destroyer and is assigned to a Battlecruiser as 'punishment'? 'There must be a catch to his' he thought.

"An experienced crew will be assigned to you to support you since you don't have the long experience of commanding a capital ship. But now, pack your bags and head to the hangar. A shuttle is waiting to transfer you to Agrippinaa. When you arrive, the ships overhaul should be finished. There, Admiral Kossalis will give you further orders. Any questions?"

"Yes, Admiral. Why?"

"Because I have the gut feeling that you will be a success" Schmidt said smiling. "And over the years I learned to trust my instincts."

Schmidt came around the table and offered his hand. Maxim took it and the two men shook hands for the first and probably the last time.

"Good luck Maxim" Schmidt said. "I hope we meet again sometime. May the Emperors light guide your actions. You are dismissed."

Maxim gave a formal salute and left the office. On the way to his bunk he couldn't stop smiling for even one second.

_End of Chapter 4_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5: Meetings and endeavors**_

_Personal log of Maximilian Macharius._

'_Yesterday I arrived at Agripinaa. On my way to HQ I saw the hulk. It's immensely gigantic, no wonder they found ships in there. The mechanicus ships and shuttles are orbiting it like flies a corpse. I even saw a glimpse of a Mars battlecruiser. My heart jumped at the prospect of commanding such a powerful ship. But before that I have to face Admiral Kossalis, listen to what he has to say to me and meet my new command crew that was picked for me.'_

"Commander Maximilian Macharius reporting as ordered, Sir."

Maxim was standing at attention in front of Admiral Kossalis' desk waiting for him to reply. While he waited he took a look at the Admiral. His face was lined with age and his hair grey. His eyes told of long yeas of combat and death. According to the records, the Admiral was 56 years old and yet he looked 20 years older. After what seemed to Maxim a lifetime, he spoke.

"I see. You're the comet who takes command of a Mars battlecruiser with 22 years of age and just 2 years out of the academy."

Maxim swallowed hard. The Admiral's voice was frosty as a Valhallan winter. Clearly he wasn't delighted to see him taking this command. "Yes, Admiral" was still the only thing he could say. But the Admiral wasn't finished.

"Admiral Schmidt made it clear why he wanted you for this post. Let me tell you straight. I don't like seeing a mere trainee on such an important post. Especially one who lost his last ship. A Mars battlecruiser isn't a little Cobra destroyer. It's not as maneuverable as a destroyer, it's slower and so on." He sighed "But still, the command is yours. I've prepared an experienced crew for you. Here are their data slates. Look for them on the station. Dismissed."

Maxim hurriedly grabbed the slates and left the office as quickly as possible. On his way to his quarter he started looking through the profiles of his new crew.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -----------------

"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" With a war cry, Khornate Champion Victor Harras dove into the fight once more. He and his warband battled the followers of the pleasure god again to gain control of this precious twisted planet deep inside the eye of terror. His successes had drawn masses of troops and ships to him. He was blessed by his god and he even had demons at his side. With every battle, he gave hundreds of thousands of skulls to the skull throne and millions of liters of blood flowed to the rivers at Khorne's feet.

After decapitating the last of his immediate enemies he took a quick look around him. While his Chaos Marine entourage numbered a little more than one hundred Berserks, the regular traitor regiments and slave troops numbered more than two million men. He didn't mind what happened to them. They were expendable and their deaths gave blood and skulls to Khorne as well as the deaths of his enemies. In the distance he saw his own Demon Titans fighting their brethren of the Slaaneshi followers. He saw his armored forces cut into the ranks of the enemy, slaughtering them en masse. He was winning. He knew that even before the fight started.

As he prepared for another attack with a warp portal opened in front of him. Out came a Bloodthirster, a great demon of Khorne. His face changed into what could be describes as a smile at the thought of the carnage this mighty demon would unleash upon his enemies. But before he could do anything the Bloodthirster spoke.

"Victor Harras! Stop this attack right here and bring yourself and your force back to the ships. You have more important task to do! I'll cover your back" Victor trembled. If it was because of the booming voice of the demon or the order to abort a fight he didn't know. As much as he wanted to reject the order and keep fighting, he couldn't do it. He called the attack off and his troops fought themselves free back to their troopships. The bloodthirster and the other demons kept the enemy forces at bay so their retreat was unhindered.

'_Retreat'_. That word tasted like bile in his mouth. He waited for the demon to come back so he could demand an explanation. In his ten thousand years of service to the blood god and his minions he never saw a bloodthirster retreat in any way but being banished into the warp.

When he was back on the bridge of his flagship, the _Interminable Fear_, the bloodthirster was already there, seemingly waiting for him. Although it was normally suicide to confront a bloodthirster, Victor was too angry to hold back.

"What was that all about? Why am I recalled from a battle against the pleasure lovers before I have crushed them all? Why…"

His last question trailed off as heard the growling of the demon. He might be living to give death to anyone but he also wasn't stupid enough to enrage a demon that's able to kill him in an instant.

"Listen Victor Harras!" the demon said. "Khorne has a much more important task for you. You have to find an artifact that holds Harkanos imprisoned."

Victor frowned. Harkanos? He never heard this name. And why should Khorne himself want him free. Before Victor could speak, the demon continued.

"Harkanos is a bloodthirster like me. He's one of the first demons that ever came to being. Millenia ago, Aemos, a Changer of ways as old as Harkanos, was able to defeat and confine him into an artifact. Then he hid that artifact on a planet in this galaxy and surrounded it with such powerful wards that we have never found it. The wards were even powerful enough to prevent Harkanos contacting us in any way. But now these wards weakened somehow and we received his call for freedom.

"You, Victor Harras, are to take your entourage and search for him. We don't know where he is exactly but we know that he is somewhere in the part of the galaxy the eye is in as well. Know, Victor Harras, if you find and rescue him, your ascension to demonhood is assured."

Victor rejoiced. Demonhood. Immortality. The one thing every Champion was hoping to achieve. Without second thoughts he ordered his fleet into the warp.

_Aemos was uneasy. While one part of his plan worked perfectly the other didn't go as he planned. The human had the ship he needed to fulfil the task but the followers of the blood god were already on their way. He had to delay them or somehow prevent Harkanos from calling to them. With a wink of his mind he ordered his own forces to action. A large fleet started their engines and darted into the warp to a location where he could surprise the Khornate followers. Another wink sent ten thousand sorcerers to Harkanos' prison to strengthen the wards with their own powers._

_He knew that the hunger of the wards would kill them but he could not care less. All that mattered to him was his own safety. If Harkanos was ever freed, he could be able to beat Aemos so that other Changer of Ways would start usurping his position. And Aemos started to experience another feeling that was largely unknown to him… desperation._


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Handicaps**

_Personal log of Commander Maximilian Macharius, designated commanding officer of the Mars Battlecruiser Resilient:_

'_I went through the profile slates of my commanding crew Admiral Kossalis gave me. I have their names and most notable things about them memorized. That should make a good expression when I meet them personally. I set up an office for me to greet them. Some of the names are quite well-known. I think I read about one or two of them in the academy.'_

Maxim was sitting in his chair, going over the slates a last time. The first member of his crew would be here any minute now. According to the timetable he got from the Admirals office it would be the Mechanicus envoy. If Maxim knew one thing it would be not to mess with the tech priests. Without them, his ship would become a piece of junk even without a fight or. . .

Further thoughts were interrupted by the buzz of the door. He was here. Maxim stood up, straightened his uniform and pressed the button to let his guest in.

After the door opened and the Magos came in, Maxim nearly backed away from the figure that he saw. He had seen tech priests before but they were young and mostly still human. This one was old, seemingly several hundred years, and his body was more machine than human.

"Magos Harûn, a pleasure to meet you" Maxim said. He resisted the urge to offer the Magos his hand for greeting. Not because of his rank or status but because the Magos had no hands to shake. Where his arms should have been six different tubes sprouted each with different tools.

Instead of answering him directly, the Magos just looked slightly to the right. A little figure that could only be a servitor scuttled forward and started speaking.

"I'm pleased to meet you as well, Commander Maximilian Macharius. I hope our service together will be successful, especially since you are very young to be the Captain of a capital ship."

Maxim bit back a sharp retort. Will his age be a matter to everyone he meets? Possibly yes. His status was never seen before and normally a man his age wasn't even considerable material for such a post.

"Thank you Magos." Maxim replied while making sure that he looked at the Magos and not at the servitor. "I'm sure with you tending to it, the _Resilient_ will always be in perfect condition to serve the almighty Omnissiah and bring death upon His enemies."

His reply seemed to please the Magos. "I thank you for your confidence. If you excuse me, I will attend to the ship now. the servitor said. The Magos slightly bowed, turned around and left his office. Maxim let out a sigh. That went well. He could be sure to have the Magos on his side now. If the other meetings went as good as this, he should have no problems during the early weeks of his command.

The next visitor on his list was Robert Newman, his new second-in-command. It was a man twice his age but with the same rank. Normally that would outrank him because of the duration he held his rank but because of Maxim's command of the ship, he was under him. The data showed not much, only the previous posts and a note of a demotion from Commodore-Captain to Commodore 15 years ago. From there on, he never was promoted again despite being distantly related to the Ravensburg family, a family that brought several Grand Admirals to the navy during the centuries.

Before he could think about it the buzzer went off again. Maxim called the visitor in and saw his new second-in-command for the first time. A man in his mid forties with a face that spoke of intense service in the emperor's navy.

"Mr. Newman, a pleasure to meet you" Maxim said offering his hand. For an instant he could see a hint of suspicion in Newman's face before his hand was taken.

"Sit down" Maxim ordered. Newman did as he was ordered to and stared at a point at the wall behind Maxim. "Mr. Newman, I am curious. You were demoted 15 years ago and never promoted again. Your records have few links about the details of these things. Care to explain what happened?"

"No, Sir." Newman answered. Despite having expected this answer, Maxim was still taken aback by the ferocity of this decline.

"Mr. Newman, when I have to trust you to do a good job as my second-in, I also need to know what you did wrong to be demoted so I know what to look after to let something like that never happen again."

Newman said nothing continued staring at the wall. Maxim could sense the man's resistance and decided not to dig deeper. Instead he dismissed the man and set up a request for another second-in-command to Admiral Kossalis.

'Time for the next_'_ Maxim thought. According to his list, the next visitor would be his new Flight Commander, Corvin Urag. With 68 years old, this man was close to the end of his service to the emperor's navy but he was still one of the best men when it came to choosing the right flight groups for a ship and for a mission. _'_Well, I'll see_'_

No 5 minutes later the buzzer on his door went of a third time. In came 2 men, one old, clearly the one he was awaiting. The other one was younger, about Maxim's age, smiling broadly and a person Maxim knew very well.

"Mr. Urag, a pleasure to meet you. And you as well, Anastasius Carter" Maxim said smiling. That brought a slight frown to Urag's face.

"Apparently you already know my assistant" Urag said. "He is under my tutelage to learn everything about being the flight commander of a ship since my retirement edges ever closer."

"I know him, yes" Maxim said smiling. "He and I had some classes together and I consider him a friend. But now to business. As you know I was placed into command of the battlecruiser _Resilient_, a Mars class vessel. Due to my young age, I don't know everything yet. That's why I give you full freedom to choose any bomber and fighter wings you desire and which you feel are necessary for the success of our ship."

"I will comply and do my best, Commander Macharius" Urag said, slightly bowing. "With your permission, I will start immediately."

Macharius nodded and Urag went out. Maxim turned to Anastasius.

"I'd love to spend some time chatting with you but I still have one man on my list to meet. It's the ships commissar."

"Oh, you don't have to wait for him" Anastasius said. "There was an uprising on the ship, apparently one of the slave ganger gun crews thought their service was unjustified. So the man is a bit busy."

"Ok, then lets grab something to eat, I'm starving."

Having said that, both men went out of the office.

/ / / / / / / /

Victor Harras strode around on the bridge of his flagship. He was reckless. He felt the urge to spill blood in giant rivers to please his god. Only the thought of bringing even more skulls and blood to Khorne kept him focused on his mission.

They were in the warp for 3 weeks now, on their way through the Eye of Terror. Every day his fleet got bigger. Several warbands already joined him, massing his fleet to a point where it became unstoppable. Several of the largest battleships ever constructed along with Repulsive class grand cruisers, dozens of heavy cruisers of the Styx, Hades and Archeron class as well as Devastation, Carnage, Slaughter and Murder class cruisers. On the fringes and the rear of his fleet flew scores of raiders and destroyers, making an attack futile.

In the middle of the fleet lumbered three dozen transports, each seven miles long, carrying millions of troops, scores of vehicles and two full titan legions which dated back to the great schism.

Victor almost felt as a god. Right now he felt as having enough power on hand to conquer the whole galaxy. Although he started to wonder why he needed such a big army just to pick up an artifact to release a demon. Was there something the bloodthirster didn't tell him yet? A large number of guardians?

Before he could think farther on this subject, a warning klaxon went through the ship. The fleet was close to leaving the warp. Of course they couldn't use the Cadian gate despite it being the easiest route but that would alert the Imperium of them. Though he wouldn't mind a fight, he knew that a discovery could spoil his plans.

No, his exit was a small warpgate in a isolated part in the segmentum. That made the rest of the journey longer but safer. In front of him the first raiders and several cruisers and two heavy cruisers vanished into the materium. Victor braced himself for the tremors an exit through a small gate caused and watched the colors outside the ship changing from red to. . .

. . .yellow! His ship went right through the explosion of the cruiser [i]_Wrath of Phales[/i]_. Is crew reacted with their usual initiative, raising the shields and readying the weapons. When Victor could see again, a large chaos fleet was assembled in a loose circle around the warp exit point, their broadsides or prow weapons directly on it.

"DIVE!" That was his only command but it was enough. The ship lurched forward and it felt as if it was rushing down a river. Although he brought himself out of a position to strike at the enemy it protected his ship from their fire at the same time since their weapons were targeted on the exit.

"Identify targets and assemble fire priority! Emergency communications to the ships still inside the immaterium. They are to raise their shields and ready their weapons and change course to up or down as soon as they are out. Have them come out in pairs or trios to let their shields overlap!"

His crew did as ordered and while was giving orders his helmsman had brought the ship to broadside position to several enemy ships. While his ship started to take a pounding itself, it also dealt a lot of damage to the enemy. Already its broadsides destroyed two destroyers and crippled a cruiser.

"Warlord" his master of augurs spoke up "we identified the enemy ships. They belong to Carolus Mistral, a warlord in service to Tzeentch."

Victor led out a cry of rage. His gods rivals tried to stop him. Let them try. He opened a channel to his fleet. "Destroy the enemy completely. I don't want any of them to flee. Total destruction. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!"

On the speakers he heard his crew as well the crews of all the other ships repeating the cry. His plan of having his fleet exit the warp in pairs or trios worked and few were destroyed. All the others came over the enemy like flies over a corpse. One after another the enemy ships exploded or simply felt apart like made from paper. Occasionally one of his own ships exploded as well but he knew this fight was won.

The enemy flagship, a Desolator like his own turned around and started to fly away from the fight. It was followed by several dozen of raiders and destroyers which fired their lances and weapon batteries without pause. It looked like a pack of wolves chasing a bear.

It was over in less than 3 minutes. The whole enemy fleet was reduced to rubble and only 15 of his own ships were destroyed or crippled. Victor Harras smiled and issued his orders.

"All ships line up in formation and head for the next warp entry. We have a task to complete."

Like a swarm of bees the fleet moved, leaving the remains of 53 enemy ships behind them.

Maxim and Anastasius were sitting in the cantina, enjoying a 'meal' of questionable design. It tasted awful but it stilled their hunger. Over a dessert that looked like fresh vomit Anastasius spoke.

"Do you know that our new commissar is one of the most famous in the navy? Every ship he was on had nearly no uprisings or any of that. In my opinion that makes him as famous as the late Ibram Gaunt or Ciaphas Cain."

"I still want to meet him" Maxim said. "Call me unorthodox but in my opinion it's healthy for the understanding of a crew if they know that their captain is not some detached egoist who uses them for personal glory but can be seen as friend. I still want their respect but I don't want them to fear me in any way."

"A noble approach for someone who. . ." Anastasius' voice trailed off and his gaze went to the cantina entrance. "It seems he has arrived and he is coming right for us."

Maxim stood up and waited for the commissar to reach him. What he saw made him almost back away. Closing on him must have been the biggest living human being that ever lived. When the commissar was in front of him, he saluted and stood there at attention.

"Welcome, Mr. Khelben. I believe the little uprising on my ship is subdued?"

"Yes, Commander Macharius" Khelben replied.

"Good" Maxim said. "At ease, commissar." When the commissar relaxed, Maxim continued. "You are quiet well-known throughout the whole navy. And with you on my ship I believe that we can serve the empire and His royal navy with our best efficiency. If I make a mistake during my service don't hesitate to correct me. But don't make unjustified corrections, do you understand?"

"Understood, Commander."

"Good. Then you are dismissed. Grab something to eat if you like to I see you on the bridge when we move out."

The commissar saluted again and walked to the food dispensers. Maxim sat down again, suppressing a shiver.

"Damn, I nearly wet myself. I'm glad he is on our side." Maxim said to a grinning Anastasius. "And somehow I'm not hungry anymore. Care to hit the entertainment complex?"

"You bet I do."

And so, both man went off not noticing the stare of a man sitting in a quiet corner of the cantina. The man checked his surroundings and spoke into his larynx microphone. "I think he is the one. Shall we continue to watch him?" After one second he had his answer. "Yes Inquisitor. We will do as you ordered."

_Deep inside of the eye Aemos almost felt like wailing. His ambush worked perfectly but he hadn't expected the khornate fleet to grow so vast in such short time. Now his own champion was dead, his fleet crushed, the enemies champion closing in on his prey. But he had to keep his calm. Rationally he set other plans in motion. Using his immense power he caused a warpstorm to grow bigger. And at the same time he started to get into the heads of some creatures he used on several occasions already, using their affinity to fighting to forward his plans._

_And the best thing was, they were available in their millions if necessary. Soon, the path of Victor Harras would be littered with a foe that was almost as reckless as a khornate worshipper. It was time to bring in the orcs._

_End of Chapter 6_

_To be continued. . ._

Bonus profile #1

Name: Gabar Harûn

Age: 345

Height: 5'4''

Weight: 145 lbs

Present rank: Magos

Present status: Head of the tech priests of the newly commissioned Mars class battlecruiser Resilient. Harûn personally led the ceremony of cutting the ship out of the space hulk it was found in.

Born on Mars, his career in the Adeptus Mechanicus was predetermined. His devotion to the machine god impressed his superiors and his discovery of an ancient STC plan that made it possible for farm planets to double their output earned him the rank of Magos and his first augmentations.

Today, 70% of his body is artificial. Unlike some of his colleagues with the same age Harûn still has his complete sanity and is able to enhance the output of nearly every device he lays his hands on.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Interference**

_Personal log of Maximilian Macharius, Captain of the Mars Battlecruiser _Resilient.

_During the last month I met my command crew. The weapons officer came last. But I think Mister Lomion will do his job great. But the commissar was THE surprise. I never met a guy as big as him. He is build like an Orc but much taller. Almost like an Ogryn. Also I met an old academy friend who will serve on my ship to learn the job of Flight Commander by doing. And I took every free minute I had to train my marksmanship with the Nova cannon. Now the ship is completed and ready. Today we will make the first real test run. Our mission is to patrol a few systems and look out for anything unusual._

"Hey Maxim." Anastasius Carter said while catching up with Maxim.

"Hey Anastasius. It seems that the _Resilient_ will finally get some action."

Both men strode towards the docking bay where their shuttle to the _Resilient_ was waiting. Anastasius was talking the whole time. Maxim didn't really listen to him for his mind was filled with concerns. Will the crew work with him? Will the mission go well?

As both men seated themselves inside the shuttle, Maxim stopped Anastasius flow of words.

"Listen Anastasius, we're friends alright, but remember to address me as Captain while we're on the bridge. It's only Maxim when in private, okay?"

"Understood, Captain." Anastasius replied smiling.

The flight was smooth, despite the fact that Anastasius didn't even seem to stop breathing while he talked. Maxim occasionally replied but soon gave up listening. After the shuttle landed in the docking bay of the _Resilient_, Maxim saw many Lightning fighters and Marauder bombers arrayed in several rows. It seemed that Flight Commander Urag did his job well. Pilots and crew who spotted Maxim saluted formally. Maxim returned them, smiling inwardly. At least the pilots didn't reject him on first sight.

After they reached the bridge, Maxim ordered every command crew member into his auditorium. There he addressed all of them.

"Gentleman, status report please. You first, Magos."

Magos Harûn began hissing and his servitor stepped forward speaking.

"The reactors are rubbed with blessed ointment and devoted to the almighty Omnissiah. The signs are perfect, not one machine showed any kind of displeasure from the Machine God."

Maxim interpreted the words of the Magos that everything worked fine. Truthfully, he never really believed in the existence of a Machine God or Omnissiah and he supported the idea that a good kick was more successful to restart a machine than a dozen prayers.

"That's good Magos. Mister Urag?"

"The requisition was successful. We got the Phantine XXXV fighter corps and the 35th Arkalaxian bomber squad." Urag explained. "The Phantine are an elite fighter corps with a famous history. They fought in the Gothic War and during the 13th Crusade. The Arkalaxians are fairly new, build around a few veteran pilots and a lot of new ones. But their training results were pretty good that's why I decided to take them."

"Thank you, Mr. Urag" Maxim said. Then he turned to his weapon officer. "Mr. Lomion, the status of the weapons?"

Lomion cleared his throat. "The weapons are all functional. Most of them even were it when the ship came out of the hulk. The Nova cannon is brand new from Mars and the test shots were all successful. It's even an improved version to the regular cannon and we estimate that it's able to eliminate a heavy cruiser with one well placed shot."

"Thank you, Mr. Lomion. That leaves security matters aboard the ship. Commissar Khelben?"

The commissars voice was booming like a thunderstorm in the auditorium. Maxim could imagine this voice over a firefight or brawl. A man would be foolish to fight on after hearing that.

"The slave gangs are in their bunks close to the weapon batteries. The security forces on this ship are mediocre but with your permission I will initiate a training program for them. Then, apart from a full scale boarding by Space Marines or Demons, they should be able to repel anything happening here."

When Khelben said the word 'Demons' everyone in the room reflexively made the sign of the aquila. Maxim thought it through. A training program was surely a good thing and it gave the security crew something to do in their spare time which should help eliminate the possibilities for them to become drug addicts.

"Mr. Khelben, you have my permission for this training program. But before you start it I want you to bring it to paper so I can have a look at it."

"Understood Captain."

"Okay, any questions?" Maxim asked. Nobody had one. "Okay, then it's time to fill you in on our first mission. We are tasked with a little pirate hunting. During the last 4 months, a pirate group became too active for the local sub-sector command. Eye witnesses have confirmed that the pirates have at least one or two cruiser sized ships, several escorts and a few fighters."

Maxim let the other men swallow the information. Then he continued.

"Our mission is to find their base and rout them all. Clear and simple. For this, we have our ship, the _Resilient_ as flagship. We will be accompanied by two Lunar cruisers, the _Novatis _and_ Starhawk, _a Gothic class cruiser, the _Orca_ and 4 escort wings, 8 Cobra destroyers and 6 Firestorm frigates.

We will search through several systems for their base or a few of their ships. If we stumble upon their base, we destroy it and wait for their fleet. If we find some of their ships, which will be more likely, we are to chase them off. Our navigator assured me that he's able to trace them back to their hideout. If he's successful, we will follow them there and rout them out. Any questions?"

There were none.

"Okay, the next is absolutely contrary to our orders. In case we get the opportunity, I want to take over one of their cruisers. If it's a cruiser of course. If not, we blast it to pieces. I want to do this because I figure it'll do the fleet more good if we can bolster it with another cruiser especially considering the losses during the crusade. Commissar, if I gave those orders, would you comply or shoot me?"

That brought a sharp intake of breath from the other men, except Harûn. Khelben looked Maxim directly in the eyes. To Maxim it felt like a Catachan devil looking at his lunch. After 3 seconds that felt like a lifetime, Khelben answered.

"Captain, you are asking us to break our orders. Normally I couldn't allow that. But since you're doing it for the good of the fleet and therefore the empire, I will comply. I will start preparing the troops right after this meeting to be ready if that event should occur."

"Thank you, Mr. Khelben" Maxim said relieved. "Dismissed."

As everyone filed back to bridge, Maxim sat down on the Captain's chair.

"Helm, bring us out. A quarter speed until we're out of the base perimeter. Then full speed to the warp entry point."

Maxim activated his intercom. "Navigator Khoval, we're about to jump into warp. Please prepare yourself."

"Understood Captain" came the reply.

With all orders given, Maxim sat silently in his chair, contemplating about the mission and his future.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_The orks were on their way. Aemos had directed his will through their weirdboyz, creating an awesome Waaagh! that would eventually lead to the prison planet of Harkanos. But Aemos was still uneasy. He sensed that the Orks wouldn't be on time. Their hulk was too immense to be steered. And the warp currents flew them off course sometimes. He had to do something to slow down the khornate fleet._

_With a blink of a thought, he summoned one of his sub demons to him. A demon that was eager to prove himself. Aemos knew that Kalathael wanted his own realm, and the same or even more power than Aemos. Although it would give him more power, Aemos knew it was the only thing he could do. He let Kalathael become a warp storm to cordon off the part of the warp where Victor Harras' currently was flying through._

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Victor Harras sat in his command chair, brooding. The warp currents were strange. It looked like walls coming up in front of his armada, trying to keep him away from something. '_Something is trying to stop me' _Victor thought. He cursed himself for not bringing a sorcerer with him. He hated them with a passion but sometimes they were useful.

His army was getting agitated. They yearned for bloodshed and being kept in their hundreds of thousands in a cramped transport wasn't helping. If they couldn't find a battle soon, it could evolve to a war between them just for the sake of spilling blood.

Suddenly the demon bound to the sensors started speaking. "Lord Harras! The warp currents are culminating in a storm. We are trapped!"

Victor stared outside in a mixture of awe and rage. He had seen a couple of warp storms already but this one was different. Normally it would block a certain way through the warp but this time the armada was completely surrounded. There was no way out. Any ship that tried would be torn apart by the strong forces.

Victor Harras howled in rage. Now he was sure that some dark, sinister mind was trying to keep him away from his price. He'd show them.

"Have ten thousand slaves assembled on this ship. We will make a sacrifice to Khorne for guidance. If he really wants to see his Demon champion free, he will help us out of here."

_To be continued._

_End of Chapter 7_

Bonus profile #2

Name: Corvin Urag

Age: 68

Height: Height: 6'3''

Weight: 240 lbs

Present rank: Flight Commander

Present status: Flight Commander of the newly commissioned Mars Battlecruiser Resilient.

Corvin Urag was born on Necromunda as the son of a wealthy merchant family. His parents bought him into the naval academy. He impressed his tutors by choosing the perfect fighter corps for several ships in several training exercises. After his graduation he served on the Dictator Class cruiser _Creolé_ and learned all he knows now from his tutor, Flight Commander Creche.

Creche taught him not to choose a fighter wing by the paper but listen to his instincts when doing it. This kind of gut instinct earned him the respect of a lot of fleet commanders for his choices always were responsible for either victory or were the only reason for avoiding utter destruction in retreat maneuvers.

Now, at 68 years old and only a few years before retiring he set out to instruct a new academy offspring on his own, a young man named Anastasius Carter.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Resilient's first blood**

_Personal log of Maximilian Macharius, Captain of the Battlecruiser Resilient. We're on patrol duty for 3 weeks now.We have yet to meet the pirates we are tasked with hunting. We received several distress calls but were always either too late or too far away to be any help. We were able to eliminate several systems from the possibility of a pirate hideout, since they are either massively populated or monitored. That leaves us with 13 systems were the pirates could hide. Unfortunately they are on different ends of the sector so the search is a tad too long for my liking. Right now we have completed the search of 7 of those systems. What are the odds of finding the pirate base in the last system on our list? To shorten the search I made a little gamble. I sent my Firestorm squadrons to the most distant systems. If they find anything they are ordered to hide and report back to me. Now we just have to wait._

Maxim sat in his command chair with closed eyes and listened to the noise of the engines. He found warp travel always fascinating and disturbing. He knew that outside the Gellar field were entities that would gladly devour his soul and the soul of anybody else on his ship.

He took a look around. Most of the crew was impassive, doing their routines without any signs of discomfort. Anastasius however seemed to be a little freaked out the way his knuckles were white due to the strain he put on them by grabbing his armrest in such a forceful way.

A gong sound snapped Maxim back to reality. "Prepare for return to the materium" a cogitator said with his usual monotonous voice. Maxim sighed. 34 systems searched and still no signs of a pirate base.

The gong sounded again, indicating imminent return to realspace. The ship shuddered as it did so. Maxim looked to Anastasius finding him a little sick-looking. Despite the bad condition of his friend, Maxim could barely suppress a chuckle.

The armored window screens opened again, showing him yet another system. He saw a red sun with 3 planets in close orbit and a gas giant almost next to him. Of course, 'almost next to him' in naval terms still meant thousands of kilometers. What Maxim didn't see was a pirate base.

"Any sensor readings?" he asked.

"No unusual ones" the sensor tech replied. "The usual background readings. No electrical readings apart from our own. No asteroid field to mask a hideout either. The radiation of the Fallos belt is not strong enough here to mask anything."

The Fallos belt is an area of space where warp travel is impossible. The tech priests who researched it were unable to say if it's a still standing warpstorm or some kind of anti-matter that prevents anything from coming through. Its size was estimated to be ball shaped with a 15 lightyear diameter.

Maxim sighed. Cross another system. "Conduct deep system sweep. Magos, please prepare the warp engines for re-entry. We won't be here long."

"Yes, Captain" said the servitor that always accompanied Magos Harûn.

"Captain" came suddenly from his intercom. Maxim recognized the voice of Astropath Kellner. "I received a message from Captain Kuller."

That made Maxim jump and walk fast to the astropath's chamber. He'd instructed Kuller only to send a message if they run into trouble or find the pirate base.

It took him 2 minutes to reach the astropath. With him was Flight Commander Urag and Commissar Khelben so they could start planning their parts in an assault should it come to that.

"We're here Mr. Kellner. Would you give us the message please?" Maxim said. Kellner went into the trance that comes with playing messages.

"Kuller to Macharius. We found the pirate base. It's an old Ramilies star fort. It seems it only partially active. We can see a Lunar Cruiser and ship that has the size of a cruiser but no resemblance of anything we have in our databases. The rest are escorts, 4 Cobra destroyers and 5 Sword frigates."

Maxim thought for a moment. A Ramilies star fort would surely make a difference. He turned to his company. "Commissar, can your attack squads take over a star fort?"

Khelben thought for a while before he answered. When he did, it made Maxim's heart sink. "No. Even partially active it holds more men than we have. I'd recommend destroying it."

For a while nobody said anything. Maxim thought about several possibilities ditching most almost instantly. Then a plan set itself in motion in his head. He turned to both men.

"Mr. Urag, prepare our fighters and bombers for the upcoming battle. Commissar, prepare your squads for a possible boarding action against a Lunar Cruiser. Dismissed."

When both men were away, Maxim turned to the Astropath. "Mr. Kellner, you have to relay two messages for me.

"The first one is to Captain Kullner. Say… Macharius to Kullner. If you can assure staying undetected, stay there and collect as much data of ships and their disposition as possible. Then meet us the rallying point in the Anaxes system in 2 days."

The astropath started repeating his message and transmitting it through the warp. Maxim waited until he was done before he cleared his throat to get the astropath's full attention.

"Now a second message. It goes like this…"

Two minutes later Maxim was on his way back to the bridge. His thoughts were troubled with the reaction of the receiver of his second message. If the answer was positive, it could be possible that his plans earned a Ramilies star fort for the Imperium. And since Ramilies star forts are able to travel through the empyrean it would be possible to place it into a vulnerable system close to the Eye to protect it from attacks from Chaos raiding fleets. Before he could further brood about things he couldn't do anything about he reached the bridge where more pressing matters waited. He had a mission to accomplish. With the ease of a captain twice his age he started issuing orders.

"Prepare for entry into the warp. We found the pirates. We'll fly to the Anaxes system as rally point where our escorts will meet us. Then we prepare our assault on the pirate base. Mr. Urag, prepare the fighter and bomber wings and issue simulations. Mr. Lomion, prepare fire solution based on the numbers our scouts reported. I want us ready when we exit the warp in the target system."

Less than 5 minutes later the ships were back in the warp heading for their destination and Maxims first battle as commander of a battle group.

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Victor Harras' was far from anything resembling good. The strange warp storm that developed in record time engulfed his complete fleet. Already he received reports about bloody brawls on several ships in his armada but at least his subordinates were able to quell them quickly instead of joining the slaughter themselves. But even now he could feel the urge to spill blood rising in him.

When the fleet was on its way towards a destination, having a common purpose, they could hold their bloodlust. But now, being trapped inside the warpstorm, there was no goal. They couldn't get out to fight an enemy so they turned on each other. Victor knew that this warp storm wasn't there by coincidence. It's here deliberately. An unseen power tried to stop him from reaching his goal. Who could it be? It could only be another power. The mortal races were too weak to achieve a warp storm. But without a warlock he couldn't pinpoint the source.

So he continued sitting on his throne on his bridge and fighting the urge to spill blood in the name of his god, knowing full well, that every loss in his retinue slimmed the chance of success if he encountered strong resistance once he reached his destination.

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_If Aemos knew how, he'd smile. Despite being a danger to his position, using Kalathael to stall the Khornate fleet was a success. He knew that in due time they would self destruct. The bloodlust was too deep in them to be subdued for a prolonged time._

_But Aemos had other plans. He could use the desperation of the Khornates. In their close proximity was a planet of a Slaaneshi champion who was on the verge to daemonhood. _

_With a blink of thought he ordered Kalathael to open a small tunnel for the fleet to pass through. It would lead them right to him. With one stroke he could weaken the Khornate forces and get rid of a mighty champion of his rival. But still he started to fluster an early warning to the Champion. Why not make things interesting…_

_End of Chapter 8_

_To be continued_

Bonus profile #3

Name: Victor Harras

Age: undetermined

Height: 8'4'' (armored)

Weight: 735 lbs (armored)

Present rank: Khornate Champion. Chosen of Khorne. Leader of one of the largest armadas since the humans went into space

Present status: On a search and rescue mission for a very mighty Bloodthirster demon of Khorne, Khorne himself ordered him to this mission.

Victor Harras was once a Space Marine in the World Eaters Legion. He fought at the gates of the Imperial palace during the heresy and after Horus was dead he fled with his legion into the eye. He was one of the few Marines in the Legion who didn't become a mindless berserk.

He kept fighting with wits and attracted an ever-growing retinue to him. Now his army consists of a full company of Chaos Space Marines and a full Titan Legion. His armored forces consist of several dozen Defilers and hundreds of Land Raiders, Predators, Dreadnoughts and Rhinos. His living troops already number hundreds of thousands, even millions.

Now, Victor Harras is in need of finding the price he is after or he will lose Khornes favor. And losing was something Victor Harras was not accustomed to.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: At the entrance to hell**

_Personal log of Maximilian Macharius, Captain of the Battlecruiser Resilient. We're a few minutes away from emerging into our staging zone. We received more reports from the Firestorm squadron I sent to our target and they tell me that the pirates still don't move out. Quite the opposite, during the last 2 days more escort ships arrived along with 2 cruiser sized vessels in that system. According to Captain Kuller, there are now at least three different pirate groups present. I don't exactly know what makes him assume that but since he has a two decade long experience of pirate hunting, I trust his judgment in this matter. These circumstances however open up new possibilities. A strike against three separate pirate groups would be a heavy blow against piracy in general in this sector. I already made a request for fleet reinforcements since a battle now would be in the pirates favor._

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"Ar we there yet?" Gragrok Bonecrusher asked impatiently for the 100th time. He always had to resist the urge to pound the mek in front of him to a bloody stump because without them, the massive hulks his Waaagh! was on its way on would fall apart. They were also the ones who immediately after their departure began to strip the internal materials of the hulks to build warships.

Gragok's horde was immense. On 12 hulks that miraculously appeared in his system millions of orks traveled to their unknown destination the warp was bringing them. His weirboyz assured him of a "megagigantic battle" once they were there. And that was the only thing that kept his Waaagh together. The bosses of the participating clans already had to quell several brawls but at least no revolt broke out yet. To say it in the words of his weirdboyz: 'Dschust a liddl more teim'

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On the bridge of the _Interminable Fear _Victor Harras watched the debris and bodies float in the warp. The entities that were home here already began devouring the souls of the still alive crews that floated there. This was the latest uprising due to the bloodlust that overtook his armada. 7 cruisers, one grand cruiser and 22 escorts had to be destroyed for order to come back. If they couldn't get out of this warpstorm and kill something real soon, his army would be gone in a matter of days.

That thought was just finished when the demon that was enslaved to the sensor station spoke up.

"Lord, the warp storm opens."

"Is it abating?" Victor Harras asked.

"No, there is a tunnel opening for us to get through." the demon replied.

"I smell a trap. But we have no choice. Bring us through."

And so the Armada went through the hole Kalathael created after Aemos' order towards their, to Victor Harras unknown, destination. And Aemos smiled.

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"We're about to re-enter the materium, Captain." Anastasius was saying.

Maxim snapped out of his daydreams. God-Emperor, he was tired. He could barely sleep during warp travel. He thought about getting some stimulants or soporifics and decided for soporifics the next time. Better an artificial sleep than being awake on drugs during a battle.

The final gong sounded. Shortly thereafter the fleet embarked from the warp into the Anaxes system. The sight that greeted Maxim put a smile on his face even though it seemed to freak out the rest of his crew apart from the sensor tech who made his report first.

"Captain, we have the rest of the fleet on the sensors plus another Battlecruiser, the Watchfulness, 3 cruisers and 12 escorts. And . . . two Space Marine attack cruisers. Pictograms on the hull indicate them to be from the Relictors Chapter."

Seeing Maxim's broad smile most of his crew frowned.

"Captain, is that your doing?" Urag asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Maxim said. "That's the help I need to take the Ramilies fort in one piece, so the Navy can put it on a threatened planet. I'm going to the conference room for the tactical meeting."

Maxim went to the conference room and greeted the other captains via hololith.

"Greetings fellow Captains. And a special greeting to you, Captain Virgo. I thank you for your presence and I deeply appreciate your willingness to assist us in this mission."

The Space Marine Captain nodded curtly. Even though he was only transmitted via hololith, he still was an impressive being. Maxim continued.

"As you know from the data you received from our scouts our target is a system at the outer fringes of this subsector. It's lying directly next to the Fallos Belt. So some might wonder why a Ramilies Fort is located there. Although they are able to travel through the warp it's not an easy thing to do. But the fact that it is possible is the reason I planned to get it in one piece.

"For further and more detailed orders I plan a strategic meeting in two hours here on my ship. I request every Captain and Escort squad leader to attend. I would be glad if you would attend as well, Captain Virgo."

"I will attend" the Space Marine simply said.

Maxim dismissed the others and walked back to the bridge with a sigh. He had two hours to come up with details to his plan.

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Victor Harras brooded silently on his bridge. His armada was on its way through the warp tunnel that miraculously opened. Where were they going? He didn't care. No matter the destination, he would kill anything he encountered. The thirst for blood and killing was almost unbearable.

"We're about to exit the warp" the sensor demon growled. Victor Harras watched the ships of his vanguard fleet disappear into the material universe. Suddenly he felt a dreadful sense of foreboding. The last time they did that, they were ambushed. This time however that didn't happen. As his ship exited the warp he saw what awaited him here.

The defense force of his prey was lined up in high orbit around the planet. Two massive orbital fortresses and numerous smaller defense satellites were also visible.

"Numbers!" Victor barked. The sensor demon paused. Although his ship was filled with the essence of the warp, the demons enslaved in his ship systems reacted always a fraction slower than inside the immaterium.

"Two orbital fortresses, shape resembling imperial Ramilies class. 236 laser satellites. A Desolator battleship, 5 cruisers of various variants and 40 escort ships. Marks on their hulls indicate followers of the pleasure prince."

Inwardly Victor smiled. The hated followers of Slaanesh would fight similar to his forces. But while he fought for blood, they simply fought for the pleasure of fighting. He measured their numbers. No match whatsoever for his armada. But if they cut headlong into them, the star forts could rip his capital ships apart, while the laser sats could destroy his escorts with concentrated fire. Luckily his ships captains, who followed Khorne but rarely got into close combat so the blood lust wouldn't let them mindless to tactics.

He quickly ordered his armada into four groups. One, consisting mostly of fast light cruisers and escorts, accompanied by six heavy cruisers and two battleships would take on the enemy ships. He would command this battle group himself.

The second and third, consisting of 4 battleships each, accompanied by his battlecruisers and the remaining heavy, normal and light cruisers and escorts would take on the fortresses. The masses of torpedoes his armada was able to unleash would quickly take out one of them while they pounded on the other with their enormous broadsides while the fortresses could only fire at fewer targets at once.

The third group, consisting of his remaining two battleships and eight cruisers would take out the satellites. The battleships' void shields were able to take a lot of firepower from such small satellites while being able to destroy a lot of them in return. The cruisers were to lend them their firepower to quicken the destruction of the satellites to enable a mass landing of his ground forces.

His transports were to wait way outside firing range, guarded by two escort squadrons.

With a war cry that was transmitted to every ship in his armada, he ordered them to attack.

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"Let me all welcome you personally" Maxim said to the assembled captains and the three Space Marines sitting at the table. He had his flight commander with him as well as Anastasius. "For you who don't know, this is Space Marine Captain Lemarius" Maxim said, pointing at the Marine in the middle. "This meeting is meant to clear out the details before the attack. Let me summarize what we already know based on the latest details we got from our scouts only 30 minutes ago."

Maxim's voice was firm and full of authority although he was nervous as hell. But his father as well as his grandfather, may the Emperor rest his soul, thought him at a young age that a good voice combined with a good speech helps in convincing people to do even impossible things.

"According to Captain Kuller, 4 separate and known Pirate groups are assembled in the target system. He has 20 years experience of pirate hunting so I trust his word in this matter. My plan, apart from destroying them all of course, is to take over the Lunar Cruiser and the Ramilies fortress."

Apart from his own crew and the Space Marines, no one else had heard of Maxim's plan before. Therefore the gasps were quite understandable. Nevertheless, Maxim continued.

"The enemy's fleet strength is reported to be the following: The before mentioned Ramilies fortress and the Lunar cruiser which we will board as well as a cruiser sized vessel of unknown class. Two of the other groups have cruiser sized vessels although the type is not known either. Captain Kuller estimates they are patched together from pieces of other ships. Every group has its escort class vessels and transports. We'll face a total of nine cobras, five Sword class frigates and 26 transports, some of them armed."

Maxim watched the others swallow the information. He could see the minds of them moving with numbers and chances. Always the good sign in captains. Only the Space Marines remained passive, betraying nothing of their thoughts.

"This is my plan" Maxim continued. "Since we don't know if the pirates have fighter wings at their disposal, we'll start every fighter we have. One of the cruisers, the Executioner, has 4 squadrons on her own, giving us 8 squadrons to use. Mr. Urag, Mr. Carter, you will hail the Executioner and work out a plan for our fighter and bomber wings with the Executioners Flight Commander. Dismissed."

Urag and Anastasius saluted and went out of the room. In leaving Anastasius winked at Maxim in a try of encouragement. Maxim smiled and moved his concentration back on the meeting.

"Now to the approach. We hope we can stay undetected as long as possible but we shouldn't count on it. That's why I'm choosing the direct route. We will use the block formation After we come out of the warp, the Resilient and the Watchfulness will be at the front with two cruisers on each flank. The Novatis and the Starhawk will flank us while the Omicron and the Orca will flank the Watchfulness. Thanks to sector command, we have two Overlords to our disposal which gives us two more Nova cannons to use. That's why they will be over and under the block to give them more space to maneuver. Captain Roslin and Captain Boderick, you will use them to destroy the smaller ships so we can concentrate on their big ones."

Both men nodded, eager to prove their marksmanship. Maxim knew they were good. Although he trained with the Nova gun, it was still a fine piece of technology and Maxim still had problems estimating the range to a target.

"I will use the Resilient's nova gun to fire at the Ramilies fort. I will target the active part to eliminate some of their weapons. Our escort wings will surround us. I will give each of them explicit target solutions for their torpedoes. I saw the effects of multiple torpedo hits so I know what I'm talking about."

A light chuckle went around the table. Every man in the room, maybe except for the Marines, whose faces still were passive, knew about Maxim's young career and his presence in the battle of Accamar.

"In the meantime" he continued "the attack cruiser, the Vengeance and Righteous, will follow us in close proximity. Our overlapping void shields will hopefully block any fire on them. When we are as close as possible, they will divert and target the star fort. Then they will attack with boarding torpedoes. Once they are in, we will focus our energy on their fleets. Their Lunar cruiser is not to be destroyed. Our bomber wings are ordered to disable most of their weapons. Once that is done, the Resilient will pull up alongside for boarding actions. My ships commissar trained my security units for such a task. If any of you have some units with experience in boarding, they are highly welcome."

"I will give you some" a deep, sonorous voice spoke. Maxim almost startled. It was the first time he heard the Space Marine Captain speak in person.

"Pardon me?" was the only the Maxim could say. He was still dumbstruck by the Space Marines voice.

"I said, I will give you some. Some troops. I have 200 Marines with me. It doesn't matter if I go with all of them into that star fort or not. That's why I give you three squads. 30 Marines, each one with at least five decades experience of close combat fighting and boarding action under the command of Brother Veteran Sergeant Lokar."

"Thank you. Thank you very much. The offer is highly appreciated and accepted. I will place my troops under the command of Veteran Sergeant Lokar. His esperience outranks any of us."

"I will tell him and order him on your ship." The Captain said.

After a moment, Maxim turned back to the others. "Now you have time to comment and ask question."

The rest of the meeting went smooth, with only minor comments on his plan. Maxim led out a sigh of relief. Not only was his plan wildly approved and unanimously accepted, he even got 30 Space Marines for his own boarding action. Could things turn out better?

Less than five ours later, the fleet dropped out of the warp. Captain Kuller and his squadron lines themselves up with the rest of the fleet and a massive block of adamantium and firepower swept towards unprepared pirates while blocking sight to two small cruisers filled with the deadliest weapon in their arsenal.

_End of Chapter 9_

_To be continued_

Bonus profile #4

Name: Lars Khelben

Age: 83 years

Height: 9'3''

Weight: 630 lbs

Present rank: Commissar on the Navy Battlecruiser Resilient

Lars Khelben was born on a low gravity planet where a person easily becomes 7 feet tall. But even with this standard, Lars is a big man. The planets conditions favour slim but tall bodies so his natural muscularity was not normal. He made body building to enhance his already big stature. After his parents were killed in an accident, the commissariat took and trained him.

He graduated with best results and became commissar in several Guard units over his career. Every unit he was attached to became an exemplar of discipline and combat efficiency.

After saving the life of a Lord Admiral during a rebel uprising, he was transferred to the navy and the Admirals flagship. After he survived its destruction he was transferred to a new Battlecruiser called Resilient, commanded by a young captain named Maximilian Macharius. Despite his young age, this man already proved to be a firm but sometimes bold man but up to now, Lars had no reason to shoot him.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

_Personal log of Maxim Macharius, Captain of the Mars Battlecruiser Resilient. We entered the system of the enemy and are right now on route to him. The star fort is looming threateningly in the background, the ships a few miles in front of it. Right now we're still undetected but I don't think this will last long._

Maxim stood at the Nova cannon targeting station with the targeting device strapped over his head. In his last simulation, he hit 95 out of 100 targets so he was sure to hit this one as well. He had a clear shot at his target. One of the cruiser sized abominations two clans seemed to use as their flagships. Maxim had the bridge right in his cross but still he didn't shoot. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, opening them again after breathing out. His aim slipped a few millimeters, which meant several dozen meters in space. He corrected it.

He repeated the breathing process two times, then his aim stayed true. He still wondered why the pirates haven't spotted them yet. A fleet the size he was leading would have been seen even after descent from warp not to mention during the approach. He thought about a trap and for a fraction of a second he wondered if he should order the fleet from its course to make a different approach. But he quickly dismissed it. He absently took the icon of the emperor that was hanging around his neck and kissed it while never losing his aim. Offering a silent prayer to the emperor, he winked his free hand to his comm and weapons officers and squeezed the trigger.

His shot couldn't have been more perfect. It hit the bridge section of the abomination squarely, ripping its unprepared and therefore unshielded control center apart in a blast of violent energies. When the bridge was consumed the rest of the plasma ball danced around the sip, melting armor and destroying every blast windows it hit. Not shortly after the abomination began venting oxygen and bodies. Then all hell broke loose.

The wink Maxim gave his subordinates was the signal for the fleet to fire their torpedoes on their designated targets. The torpedo swarm tactic that Maxim began to love during the clash with the Orcs in the Accamar system again proved its worth despite its cost in valuable torpedoes. The second abomination and several escorts were utterly destroyed in a moment.

The pirates lost their shock at the right time to see two more Nova cannon shots from the Overlord cruisers hitting a frigate and ripping it in two pieces.

Maxim opened a channel to the rest of his fleet. "Macharius to all. You have your targets. Fire at will. Orca and Omicron, you guard the Vengeance and Righteous. Macharius out."

When they got closer to the station it began to fire as well. Due to the distance most of its shots went wide, the few that hit broke on the void shields of the ship. The pirates came closer, the Lunar cruiser that was Maxim's price at their front. The forces came at each other like a pack of wild wolves. Maxim scored one last hit with his Nova cannon, ripping apart a Cobra destroyer. In the same time he was nearly blinded by a flash when a lance beam hit his forward void shields. He quickly set down the targeting helmet and strapped himself into the command chair.

The pirates were between them. What they lacked in numbers they made up with ferocity. They knew they couldn't win this fight so they were anxious to cause as much damage as possible. But they didn't know one thing. Maxim planned that. Due to his fleets course they soon got out of the firing distance of the star fort, leaving the remainder of the pirates to fight for themselves. In that moment, the Righteous left the protection of the Orca and Omicron and set course on a predetermined path.

Maxim's fleet had the pirats surrounded so a breakout was impossible. And with a signal, every ship concentrated their fire on the escorts, leaving the crew of the Lunar cruiser wondering why they suddenly ignored them.

Not long though. Not a minute later, three boarding torpedoes from the Vengeance shot to the Lunar accompanied by 12 shuttles from the Resilient. The Lunar's crew was way too distracted to see them coming. The torpedoes struck home, the marines pouring into the shuttle landing bay, quickly securing it by killing anything that was moving inside. Not long after the shuttles landed and the storm troops came out, with Commissar Khelben at the front.

Khelben, even bigger than a Space Marine in power armor, walked to Sergeant Lokar, saluting him.

"Sergeant, my men are under your command. Everyone has memorized the layout of the ship."

Lokar simply nodded. His plan was rather simple. 10 Marines and a third of the storm troops would use an alternate route to the bridge while the rest would take a more direct route in hope to bind the ships security forces. And with a simple "Go", men and Space Marines went off.

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Victor Harras could feel his anticipation rising. His battlegroups were on their way to their designated targets. Some ships already shot but with them being way out of range, they did nothing but put on a good light show.

His helmet was connected with the Auspex so he was able to view everything that was going on around his ship. While he was on his way to the Slaaneshi ships, his other three battle groups closed on their targets. The two groups assigned to the Star Forts shot their torpedoes at the first one. Several hundred warheads were on their way towards the fort, its crew realizing what was happening and thus opening fire with everything they had. For a short period of time the light from the station was rivaling the systems sun.

Even in his worst nightmare he couldn't have imagined the result. Instead of dozens of torpedoes impacting on the star fort as he predicted, only three hit. The fort shot everything else out of space. It seemed as if the forts had been equipped with additional armament. Before he could relay new orders, his forces reached weapon range of the star forts.

His battleships and battlecruisers started shooting at extreme range while the return fire extended theirs by a large margin. Already a light cruiser exploded. Victor growled. The first blood was spilled on his side. From each ship capable, fighters and bombers started. The same happened at the forts.

"Victor Harras to groups two and three. Combine your firepower on each station. No split. Encircle each station and stick close together for shield and sensor cover. Hammer it until it explodes. Then to the next station."

He couldn't wait for a reply since his own battle group finally reached its target. Lance fire was exchanged and torpedoes went to and fro, finding targets or getting blown out of space. The enemy was well positioned making Victor feel as if someone forewarned them.

"Victor Harras to group one. Focus fire on the biggest ships. Ignore the escorts for the time being."

Following his orders, every ships in range opened fire on the enemy's battleship. It got hammered from all sides. Its void shields flashed up before collapsing. The next macro cannon shells impacted right on the hull, ripping great chunks of adamantium armor out of it.

"MORE!" Victor Harras yelled to his crew. As more shots poured into the enemy, it began venting bodies and oxygen. Still more shots poured into it, reducing it into a slag of metallic rubble. "THE NEXT ONE" cired Victor Harras. His ships started shooting the next biggest ship, a Styx class heavy cruiser.

While it got the same punishment, Victor Harras put the auspex feed into his helmet once more. What he saw was only half satisfying. His battle groups assigned to the stations managed to destroy the first star fort and were circling the second this moment they'd taken more losses than he expected.

More than fifty ships had been destroyed and the massive amount of fire coming from the second star fort was taking its toll again. The flagship of group three was already a burning wreck and another battleship didn't fare better. Several cruisers and a grand cruiser were venting bodies into space, and dozens of escorts had been destroyed.

Only the success of group four filled his heart with joy. They were destroying the last few satellites in that very moment and suffered no casualties. "Victor Harras to group four" Victor said as he opened a channel to them. "Come back and support groups two and three. Make a torpedo attack while the station is busy with the others. Target weapon cores and outside void shield generators."

Group 4 was hurrying to obey his orders. Victor turned his attention back to his own battle. The two Styx heavy cruiser were already wrecks. As were three of his cruisers and ten destroyers and frigates. The rest of the enemy consisted of three cruisers and twenty two escort class ships. Despite taking another casualties of five escorts and two cruisers, the enemy was obliterated.

"Get us back to the star fort." He ordered. He connected his helmet to the auspex again to see how his other groups were faring. The torpedoes of group 4 struck home right when he started watching. Three hit the void shield generator they were targeting, destroying it with an enormous explosion. The forts void shields flickered and died away, giving his fleet clear lines of shooting on armor and weapon pods.

While more and more laser shots and solid shells impacted on the hull it became obvious that the enemy was hell bent to take as much of his armada with them as possible. Victor could see the build up of heat inside the station. They seemed to be overloading the reactor. "ALL SHIPS, DISENGAGE IMMEDIATELY" he shouted. Despite their lust for battle, the captains followed his orders.

The escorts had no problems getting away quickly. But once again, his tactic of circling the stations proved to be a good one. The capital ships used their momentum around the station for a slingshot maneuver, catapulting themselves out of its range. Then the station exploded.

Most of his armada was already out of the blast range but some weren't that lucky. His damaged ships couldn't away fast enough and were consumed in the explosion. After the station was gone, it became quiet. No hostiles were in sight, all that was left was a planet full of enemies. He quickly ordered his transports close to begin the planetary invasion. And licked is teeth.

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"Fire." On his command, all of his task force capable to fired another torpedo salvo at the star fort. In the same moment, the Space Marine cruiser righteous fired its boarding torpedoes. They were filled with the deadliest weapon in their arsenal. 170 Space Marines, ready to take over one of the normally best defended installations the Imperial Navy could muster.

Maxim held his breath as the scene unfolded. The few functioning weapons of the star fort, still at least four dozen towers, fired everything they had at the closing torpedoes. In their effort to save themselves from the 62 torpedoes coming at them, they completely ignored the eight slow moving objects that came from another direction.

Maxim breathed a sigh of relief. Although only one of the torpedoes impacted harmlessly at the stations void shields, the boarding torpedoes struck home unhindered. Maxim smiled as he imagined 170 Space Marines pouring into the station, obliterating any resistance.

"Macharius to all. Disengage and head out of the stations weapon range. Now we wait."

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Lars Khelben grunted slightly as he rammed his basketball-sized fist into the face of a pirate, smashing the poor guys face into mush. The original plan was to sneak as far as possible to the bridge while the rest of the forces diverted the ships security forces. But, as holy and powerful as they are, the Space Marines were too eager to fight and shot the first persons the little group met instead of letting them pass and move on to the main objective.

In another part of the ship, the human troops could only stare in awe and horror as the other 20 Space Marines hacked and slashed themselves through the enemy.

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"Captain, we received a report from Captain Lemarius. They met little resistance up to now and are proceeding to the command deck and enginarium. They estimated one hour at the most before completing their task."

Maxim listened to these words with great interest. Maybe an hour? Without those Marines it might have taken days. If they had been able to board this station anyway. What Maxim concerned was the lack of communication from his Commissar and the Marines from the Lunar cruiser. Were they still alive?

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"They're jamming us. I can't get a signal through." Lars Khelben said as he shot the last pirate that was about to flee. "But on the good side, they seem to jam themselves as well" the Space Marine replied. Lars was almost impressed with this guy. For a Space Marine he seemed almost conversational.

"Yeah, you're right. But we shouldn't wait here any longer. According to the maps, we're less than 500 meters away from the bridge." Lars said, pointing in the direction the pirate had been about to run. The Space Marine nodded and the Squad moved forward, stopping at turns to check for ambushes.

Less than two minutes later, they stood before a blast door, marked with an emblem indicating it as command deck. Lars nodded to the Space Marines who pulled their grenades out of their suits. Lars hit the open button and the door slid right open. The Marines threw their Grenades into the room, not waiting for the explosion but heading straight in behind them.

The grenades went off with several lout booms, creating an ear-hurting sonic wave and enough smoke to hide in. The human troops under Khelbens command used that cover to rush into the room, taking cover behind consoles and any other cover they could find. Khelben himself ducked behind a set of chairs, his frame too big to be covered by anything in the room. Solid rounds and laser blast winced past him, impacting harmlessly into the walls.

The Marines were on their feet, blasting through the smoke, occasionally being hit by a laser blast that did nothing but leave a small mark in their power armor. Khelben wondered how they could see, but remembered their helmets had enhancing devices build into them. Screams of pain answered each shot, proving the accuracy of the emperors finest warriors. Before the smoke cleared enough for the human forces to do something the shooting stopped.

The conversational Marine suddenly stood before Lars, offering a hand to help him up. Lars took it and rose to his feet. It was clear that the Marine wasn't used to speak to someone bigger than him the way he craned his head backwards in an awkward manner. "Commissar the bridge is secure. We also deactivated the jammer. Brother-Sergeant Lokar reported that the pirates surrendered once the jammer was offline. You have the honor of reporting the success of the mission to your commanding officer."

"Thank you" Lars said, just realizing that he didn't even know the name of the Marine he was talking to. Instead, he walked to a still functioning communication console and hailed his ship. "Captain Macharius, the Lunar is secured. Their might be a few pockets of resistance left, but we'll search the ship before we leave." The Space Marine nodded at these words and spoke something into his helmet microphone. Then the Space Marines moved out of the bridge, no doubt reuniting with their Brothers to make a sweep as Khelben said.

"Very good Commissar" came the reply. "After the sweep is conducted, hail me again and we will send over a skeleton crew to bring this ship to the closest naval base for a complete refit." "Understood Captain. I'

ll now send you the casualty list." Lars said, closing the line. He quickly assigned half of his units to secure the bridge and headed to the Marines to support the sweep.

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Maxim allowed himself a moment of pride and self-satisfaction. His plans worked perfectly. A few seconds after Commissar Khelbens success report, Space Marine Captain Lemarius reported his own success as well. He had conquered a fully functional Lunar class cruiser, a partially functional Ramilies star fort and destroyed four of the largest and most notorious pirate groups in the whole sector.

On the other hand he only lost 23 men, a frigate and a cobra destroyer and had slight damage on two of his Lunar cruisers. If that's not successful, than Maxim didn't know what to do else. As his subordinated did their parts, he went into his private cabin and started to write his own report to the sector command.

Bonus profile #5

Name: Roald Lemarius

Age: 145 years

Height: 7'5'' (armored)

Weight: 575 lbs (armored)

Present rank: Captain of 2nd Company, Relictors chapter

Captain Lemarius started his career with the age of 8 years. He was chosen to become a Space Marine. After surviving the rigorous training and the surgeries, he was a Scout Marine for forty years. In this time he killed two Orc bosses, a Chaos general and a cabal leader of the notorious Dark Eldar with his sniper gun.

The successes earned him the right to become a full Space Marine in record time. He was transferred to 2nd company to replace their losses in a boarding action against a Genestealer infested space hulk. During his service, Lemarius has seen many battlefields, from open plains with millions of soldiers to claustrophobic spaces with only his own squad brothers.

His ascend to captaincy came during the 13th Black Crusade. In a mission to secure a titan depot until the posthaste shipped in crews started them up, the former captain and two of the most experienced squad leaders fell against a combined unit of the Black Legion and Emperors Children. Lemarius took his Captains blessed rune sword and managed to kill the Chaos Champion as well as twenty other Chaos Space Marines with it, buying enough time for the crew of one titan to start it up and bring its weapons to bear.

This accomplishment convinced the Chapter Master to promote Lemarius to Captain of the 2nd company and until now, he had no reason to regret his decision.

Lemarius' latest mission brought him into a rim system of a little sub-sector close to a space anomaly known as the Fallos belt. The commander of a strike force assigned to destroy a pirate group came up with a bold plan to take over a Ramilies star fort. Although nobody in their right mind would consider a suicide mission like that, something made Lemarius sure, that this time it would pay off. And he was right, as this young upstart made a good plan which led to a conquered Ramilies star fort, a conquered Lunar cruiser and the destruction of four separate pirate groups in one strike with no losses to his battle brothers.

One thing Lemarius knows now for sure. If that Captain ever calls him again for a mission, he will happily comply.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Attacks and setbacks**

_Personal log of Maxim Macharius, Captain of the Battlecruiser Resilient. The battle is finally over. We made the crews of the remaining escorts surrender. That enabled us to take over a Lunar cruiser and two cobras. Not to mention the Star fort. I'm sure, Sector Command will highly approve this. I gave order to all ships to transfer one or two techs to it for inspection and possible repairs. I'm sure Sector Command wants to relocate this station to a planet that needs it._

"Are they on their way?" Maxim asked

"Yes, Captain" Anastasius replied. "Ten minutes ago, the tech priest went off board on route to the star fort. From every capital ship a shuttle started. If everything turns out alright, a warp transfer should be no problem."

"Alright then. So we only have to wait for the answer of Sector Command where they want it."

Long minutes passed. One after another the shuttles docked to the star fort, bringing their precious cargo into it.

"Captain, Message from tech priest Argon" the comm officer reported. They are on the bridge. Several others are in the station's enginarium. They reporting strange fluctuations in the reactor core but they feel sure that they can compensate it. The bridge is down, all functions deactivated."

"Tell them to keep us informed. If anything strange happens, they are to evacuate the fort immediately." Maxim ordered. He sat back. If a tech priest calls fluctuations in a reactor 'strange' it's always a bad thing. If the fort explodes , it'd heavily damage the fleet, even destroy the smaller vessels.

"Helm, bring us to safe range to the fort. I want to take no chances."

The helmsman complied without hesitation. Slowly, but surely the fleet got out of range.

"Captain, we are receiving a hail from Captain Lemarius." Said the comm. officer.

"Patch him through".

The hard voice of a Space Marine rasped through the vox. "Captain Macharius, we are ordered back to our base. It was an honor fighting with you." Without any further words, the line went dead.

Maxim watched the two attack cruisers head out of the system and therefore missed the frightened look of the sensor tech.

"Captain, the readings of the star fort just went off the chart. Something is happening there!" he almost yelled.

Maxim brought his attention to the fort again. All around it, strange lights were pulsing like a set of veins that ran outside of a body. It looked like a bloodstream that was centering on the lower right end of the station.

"Magos Harûn." Maxim said. "Yes Captain?" came the reply of the speaking servitor attached to his senior tech.

"I may not be the best technological experienced person but isn't the warp engine located where these energy lines are centering?"

"Yes, Captain, it is. It looks like the warp engine has been activated."

"WHAT? Isn't that too far in the system to be successful?"

"It certainly is, Captain" the Magos' servitor replied.

Maxim watched in fascinated horror as the catastrophe unfolded. Even in this state, the techs that had been sent to the station followed his orders. He could see several shuttles disembark from the station, desperately trying to get out of range.

"They won't make it." Anastasius said. His face showed the same mixture of awe and horror as the scene unfolded. Not long after the shuttles went off board, the pulsing stopped. A huge flash of light engulfed the station, temporarily blinding every person and every auspex in the fleet that was looking at the fort.

When their sight returned, the crews looked at the station and the shuttles that were able to flee from it.

The few shuttles were on route to their ships.

The station was gone.

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Victor Harras watched as the bombers under his command made another run over the planets main cities and defense coordination centers. With every run the defense fire became more and more sporadically.

He gave one word to his armada. Every ship started vomiting troop carriers. Every soldier, every marine, every tank crew and every creature under his command was eager to get on the planet to start spilling the blood of their enemies.

Victor Harras went to his personal shuttle. It was big enough to take ten Space Marines in full armor with it. Victor was there, with his banner carrier and 8 of his most experienced Marines. From other docking bays, similar shuttles started, carrying the other 90 Marines under his command with them.

All around him other troop carriers raced into the atmosphere. Some of his fighters took escort positions around him and the other Marine shuttles while others flew back to the three large transporters that carried Victors most valuable weapons. Bulky transports disembarked from these transport ships, bringing their deadly cargo to the planet.

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"It's gone. It's really gone." Anastasius babbled.

"Get a grip, Mr. Carter" Maxim ordered. The last thing he needed now was a flight commander trainee freaking out. "Magos, it seems the station managed to jump into warp. Any suggestions what might have caused that?"

"It seems the jump routine was already on its way when our techs landed. Maybe their attempt to restart the bridge functions set it off completely. That's the only explanation I have for the jump to be so rapid. Normally, a warp jump of a Ramilies class star fort takes at least one week. And that's only if they really hurry up and mistreat the machine spirits to a heretical degree."

"Well, it's pointless for us to think about the cause. Mr. Carter, go to Astropath Kellner and report to Sector Command. Tell them what happened here.

Helm, take us to the systems edge. We'll head back to base for new orders."

As the fleet, accompanied by three more ships than before, was on its way to their destination, Maxim could only wonder what happened.

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"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" shouted Victor Harras as he decapitated another enemy soldier. How he had yearned for that. Despite his discipline and restrain, he was still a warrior of Khorne. And this carnage and bloodspilling was what he lived for.

As he looked around he saw the whole scene. On a length a at least twenty kilometers his forces had engaged the enemy. His marines were mostly engaged in hand-to-hand combat while his soldiery fired their weapons in enemy masses until they were close enough to fight them in close combat. Between his forces lumbered his tanks and defilers, taking down throngs of enemies, the daemons bound to the defilers howling in pleasure whenever they killed an enemy.

The howling never stopped.

As Victor killed the last enemy, his forces let out a roar. Several kilometers behind his lines, the massive transport bulks made ground contact. Steam was rising from overloaded pistons as they tried to compensate the weight. And the doors opened.

A subordinate marine of Victor came to him. "That was only a small garrison force" he said.

"Definitely" he replied nodding. "And they were prepared for us, you could see that. Had our bombers not crumbled their flanks before the landing, we might have had serious losses."

"I pray to Khorne they come back." The marine said.

"No need to pray." Victor said again, pointing.

"What?" When the marine looked in the direction Victor pointed to, he saw the reason. A 50 kilometer wide bank of dust, caused by the trampling of at least half a dozen titans, hundreds of vehicles and millions of soldiers.

"FORM A LINE! PREPARE TO FIRE! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" shouted Victor into his vox. As his forces did as they were ordered, forming a tight firing line, his most deadly weapons finally stepped out of the transport bulks, taking their positions behind or beside his lines.

His twelve titans were finally ready.

And Victor Harras grinned with bloodlust.

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Maxim lay in his bed in his cabin nexto to the bridge and played with the Emperor shaped icon around his neck. The eyes of the icon glowed with a low golden light, Maxim always wondered why it was doing it and especially how these lights were powered. He got this icon from his father as a present on his sixth birthday and from there his life and his ability to interact with other people became easier.

He stopped playing with the icon and took one of the data slates lying on his table. On it was the report of Magos' Harûn about the abomination ships the pirate possessed. After the star fort disappeared, Harûn showed initiative, which was not likely for a tech priest, and had some of his subordinates recover some pieces of wreckage.

Optical analysis showed pieces of several ship types. Mostly lunar class, with pieces from Gothic, Armageddon class battle cruisers and one had the engine of an old vendetta class battleship. 'Magos Harûn must have freaked out.' Maxim thought. 'The idea of pirates patching different ships together and make them work seemed heretical to him.'

One detail got Maxims attention. One piece of the wreckage was a lance turret that usually are mounted on Oberon class battleships. Long range and immense firepower. Incidentally, this ship was the one he had blown the bridge off with his nova cannon shot. According to the auspex and optical logs of the tech priests, this ship had 25 of those lance turrets on each broad side. With firepower like this it could have destroyed the Resilient two times with each salvo. The thought made Maxim shudder. According to Magos Harûn, the ship couldn't possibly fire them all at once but even 5 of them could have wreaked havoc under his cruisers.

What was even more alarming was the fact that these pirates had that technology. Where did they get those weapons? Did they discover a ship graveyard or did they have an accomplice in imperial service? Maxim hoped for the graveyard.

Maxim suddenly felt the ship shudder. He quickly put on his jacket and ran onto the bridge.

"Status!" he ordered.

"We just fell out of the warp. Not just we, the whole task force was yanked out." Corvin Urag, his flight coordinator, told him.

"Open a channel to Mr. Weston. Maybe he had an explanation for all this."

"No need captain. Me and the other navigators were responsible for the drop-out." said a voice from the bridge entrance. Emilio Westen stood there with a haunted expression on his face, his bandana strapped tightly around his forehead to cover up the third eye. He strode towards Maxim.

"Mr. Weston" Maxim said calmly, but with traces of upcoming anger. "Why did we drop out?"

"Because we saw something we can't survive in the warp. A massive shockwave rippled through it from behind us. Slow but still faster than us. Hadn't we not dropped out, we would die when it passes." Westen explained.

"And when will that be?" Maxim asked. "When will this shockwave pass us by?"

"If it doesn't change speed, which I doubt it will, it should be in about 2 minutes." Replied Westen.

"Ok, then lets wait."

After one minute and 50 seconds, Weston started a countdown. When he reached zero, every astropath or otherwise psychically able person in the fleet died.

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The titans were aligned. Twelve titans. 6 of them were over ten thousand years old and used to be part of the Fire Mantis legion. The massive Emperor class titan _Flamma Ultrix_ stood at the front, its massive plasma annihilator charged and pointed to the closing enemies. Two Warlord titans and two Reaver titans stood on each side, with a Warhound in the back. On both sides of his lines stood massive Banelords and Lord of Battles. The Banelords were titans with no crew. The crew that once moved it was long dead, and chaos energy melded them with their weapons. Two had massive tentacles, others had cannons sprouting from their fingertips. Each of the Lords of Battle was a demon bound into mechanical form, giving it life and the hunger for all out destruction. The former imperial titans were still controlled by their original crew. Their minds were constantly plugged to the titans for ten thousand years, making them feel every hit, bringing them ever deeper into madness.

The smoke cloud was now close enough to make out shapes. At least half a dozen titans were there, along with massive amounts of tanks, defilers and other armored vehicles. Even some dreadnoughts lumbered there. Victor cheered in his helmet. Dreadnoughts meant Space Marines. He would get the chance to kill other Chaos Marines, offering their skulls to his lords throne.

The titans wailed and opened fire. Massive amounts of firepower poured into the enemy ranks. Several explosions told of successful hits. The plasma annihilator shot of the _Flamma Ultrix_ crashed into one of the titans at the side of the enemy's force, hitting it with enough force to strip the void shields off completely. The banelords started to wail as well, no doubt being angry at the prospect of being denied first blood. All 6 of his banelords started to close to the enemy, lusting for battle. With the weapons they carried they raked the ranks of infantry, killing hundreds with every shot.

But they were at least three million more to kill.

Every gun in Victor's force started barking. The tanks and titans counted for a tremendous death toll in the enemy force, killing hundreds of thousands instantly. His banelords and Lords of Battle almost crashed into the titans they were facing. The tentacles of one Banelord engulfed the head of a Subjugator, slicing it cleanly off. The falling titan crashed onto his allies, killing several defilers and over two thousand soldiers.

The other Subjugators and the Questors howled in pleasure of the battle to drown out the wailing of Victor's own titans. Not that it worked much. His titans created an enormous death toll in the enemy ranks with every salvo, offering Khorne skulls and blood in scores. Victor was almost tempted to call them off so his troops could have their share but he quickly dismissed the thought. These titans were the backbone of his force and he wouldn't dare doing anything to anger them.

Finally, the first of his soldiers snapped. With an incomprehensible battle cry it started running towards the slaaneshi lines, which continued to close. Although he was dropped almost instantly, the effect on his comrades was hitting. The battle line let out a roar and started running towards the enemy, firing wildly as they ran. Shrugging, Victor barked into his vox, ordering everyone to attack.

His army needed no second order. With a roar, that rivaled the titans' wailing, his forces swept towards the enemy, a tide of bodies, knifes, guns and chain axes. Victor saw a Chaos Dreadnought being blasted to bits as two of his own defilers concentrated their fire on it. In a matter of seconds the forces were mangled together. The _Flamma Ultrix_ and her accompanying titans concentrated their fire on the back of the slanneshi force were Victor's forces weren't, continuing causing havoc and numerous deaths. Countless explosions told of destroyed vehicles.

Victor glimpsed the enemy commander and ordered his Space Marines to him. Forming a wedge formation, with several defilers walking at the flanks, Victor and his retinue started toward the enemy commander. Hundreds of enemies tried to stop them but all were swept away by the unstoppable tide he and his marines formed. The defilers took care of every vehicle that tried stopping them, making it possible for Victor to finally reach the commander.

As the enemy commander set his eyes on Victor, the Marines on both sides battled each other but created a wide space for them to duel.

Although there was a battle raging around them, Victor almost didn't hear it. He was fully concentrated on his adversary. With a simultaneous battle cry to their respective gods, both marines jumped at each other. Chain axe and chain sword connected and sparked. The battle between them became a blur almost too fast for the eye to follow. In every second they exchanged blows, creating the impression that someone was grinding metal. An upward stroke with the sword took Victor's helmet off, showing his enemy the face blessed by Khorne. His adversary had already lost his helmet before. Victor snarled and with another war cry jumped on the enemy again. Both weapons connected again and locked. Both tried overpowering the other until their faces were merely inches away.

"Now you die, Khorne scum" said the slaaneshi commander. Victor snarled and started to grin.

"You should never talk during a fight" Victor said, letting one hand go and hitting his enemy with a fast blow to the head. The slaaneshi toppled and fell to the ground, his left jaw and zygomatic a broken mess. Blood mixed with teeth parts was flowing out of his mouth as Victor raised his axe. The look in the the slaaneshi's face was one of deep hatred as Victor's axe decapitated him.

During the duel, the fight turned greatly towards Victor's force. His titans had finally brought down the enemy titans and destroyed thousands of vehicles and defilers. His soldiers, were killing last throngs of resistance on the battlefield but it was clear that Victor won this battle. He raised his head and shouted his joy towards his god. All over the battlefield his army did the same. His titans wailed in pleasure. They offered almost three million skulls to Khorne.

But that wasn't enough for Victor.

"To everyone. The army will be divided. Each one will clear one continent. We level every building in every city on this planet and kill everyone living."

With a cry of joy his force set off, his marines at their helm. To battle. To kill.

After just one week, a planetary population of nearly one billion was dead.

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_Aemos was uneasy. His plan didn't work. The Khornate forces were forced to the slaaneshi fortress but prevailed. Not only that but they killed so much people that more warbands flocked to this Victor Harras. His force was greater than before. And now that the gate to Harkanos' prison was open, his archenemy turned into a beacon that became stronger with every passing second._

_Aemos scrambled for ideas. With the enlargement of the Khornate force it wasn't sure if the orcs he brought to the prison could prevail._

_With a wink of thought, Aemos started strengthening he own defenses. Just in case_

_To be continued_

Bonus profile: #6

Name: _Resilient_

Age: 7865 years

The battlecruiser _Resilient_ was build in the late 35th millennia on Mars. After a glorious career it was lost during a warp travel. At the dawn of the 42nd millennia it turned up in a giant space hulk and was recovered. After extensive refitting it was assigned to a young captain who soon made a big impact.

Today the _Resilient_ had seen its share of combat and commandeered by a smart and successful captain, its successes will only become more and more,


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Destiny?**

_Personal log of Maximilian Macharius, Captain of the Battlecruiser Resilient. It took us 11 weeks to reach Agrippinaa, current seat of Sector Command. 11 weeks without contact. They seemed mildly surprised after we emerged from the warp. I gave them my report about what happened in my mission. And today I'm ordered to attend a hearing. Why do I feel like I'm on trial? Ah well, I'll just go and see what they throw at me._

Maxim sat a bit uncomfortable in front of the tribunal. He wore his dress uniform, although he didn't like it. It fit perfectly and emphasized his trained upper body. Behind him stood Ship-Commissar Khelben, wearing his own version of a dress uniform. Black carapace armor, despite being in a secure place, a black leather coat and his characterizing cap. Standing 9 feet and 3 inches tall, he size alone would be enough to subdue anything that might arise. In his holsters he had modified twin storm bolters with a plasma gun where the second bolter barrel would be. One thing Maxim knew, having Lars Khelben on his bad side wasn't a good idea.

Maxim looked at the persons sitting at the semicircle table in front of him. In the middle was Admiral Siraki, second to Lord Admiral Quiran. Left and right were Admiral Schmidt, his old mentor, and Admiral Kossalis, the man who hadn't been very fond of him when he arrived and who now looked at him with traces of awe.

At the very right sat Admiral Sirius, the man whose task force had suffered heavy casualties against a Chaos fleet that suddenly dropped ot of the warp nearly on top of him. He looked troubled and sullen. Maxim understood the feeling since he felt the same way after the Eldar destroyed the convoy he was supposed to guard.

The man on the very left distinguished himself from the others to a large degree. Not in a uniform like the others, rather in plain clothes that betrayed nothing of his origins, he still looked more confident than the others and seemed like a man used to exercising authority, especially when Maxim caught the look Admiral Siraki gave that man.

Before Maxim could do anymore thinking, Admiral Siraki cleared his throat and brought quiet to the room.

"Mr. Macharius, we brought you here because we want to hear your report in person. We all read it and it brought up quite a number of questions. Don't worry, you're not on trial and we won't punish you in any way. Quite the opposite."

The calm tone of the Admiral had a reassuring reaction on Maxim. He immediately felt better. When he looked at the strange man on the left, he could see a wondering look on his face. Any more thoughts were silenced by Admiral Siraki.

"Well Mr. Macharius. Tell us in your own words what happened."

Maxim cleared his throat before he answered.

"I was given command over a sizable task force. My mission was to eliminate pirates that troubled this sector for a long time. During the search, my scouts learned about a meeting of several different groups of them in a system on the edge of the Fallos Belt.

"I gave the fleet order to make full speed to the destination. I also called for reinforcements. Reading about the ships the pirates deployed and an only partially working Ramilies star fort, I elaborated a plan to capture both the fort and the Lunar Cruiser one of the groups had. My request for reinforcements was approved and I also got the help of two companies of Space Marines from the Relictors chapter.

"As my fleet approached, it was clear that they didn't expect an attack since they took a pretty long time to react. In fact, they started reacting, after I blew up one of the abominations with a nova cannon shot…"

"What about these abominations?" Admiral Kossalis interjected.

"We will review them later." Admiral Siraki replied before Maxim could say anything. "Please Commander, proceed."

"Thank you, Admiral. As I said, they reacted once I destroyed one of the strange ships. I had two Overlord cruisers in my task force, both armed with Nova cannons and gave them the order to shoot down escorts. As the battle went underway it was clear, that the Ramilies was only poorly manned as very few defense turrets shot at us. Not wanting to risk anything we managed to shift the battle out of the Ramilies' range. As soon as it was possible I ordered the boarding parties to action. While 170 Space Marines went to the star fort, 30 Marines and a force of my own security troops boarded the Lunar clas cruiser.

"Despite being jammed they both completed their mission. None of the Space Marine died, while my own security lost about a fifth of their number. But as soon as we had both the ship and the station under control, the enemy surrendered. We took two more escort ships as spoils of war.

"As a contingent of tech priests entered the station to check it, something went wrong. Something caused the station to make a warp jump. Despite it being too far away from any jump points, it somehow managed not to explode. I made an astropathic report about what happened and was ordered back here.

"A short time after we entered warp space the whole fleet was yanked out again without any forewarning. I learned that the navigators have seen a giant shockwave coming at them from behind and brought the fleet out to prevent damage or worse. As we counted down the passing of the wave, something very strange happened. As the wave went past us, every astropath in the whole fleet died. We estimated that the wave must have been immensely powerful to kill them outright."

"Yes, the wave was felt in the whole sector. More astropaths died on planets close to you. With farther distance, the wave seemed to have weakened. The farther it went, the less disastrous were its effects. On some planets astropaths have been crippled, on others they just fainted and on the opposite site of the sector, they just felt a slight pressure, nothing more. We theorize that the wave was caused by the explosion of the Ramilies star fort inside warp space." The man on the left said.

Maxim looked at him. Plain clothes with no mark of origin, no signs of office whatsoever. Maxim decided to take the gamble.

"We came to the same conclusion during our voyage" Maxim said, and added "Inquisitor."

That brought a flash of irritation from the man.

"You are good, Mr. Macharius. Let me introduce myself. I'm Inquisitor Remus Kornat. And yes, I'm aware of the implications of my last name." he said, the last part in enough disgust to make it clear that he heard enough jokes about it.

"That's about the end of my report." Maxim said.

Admiral Kossalis was the first to speak.

"Lets get back to these, as you call it, abominations. What are those and what are their capabilities?"

"According to the visual and auspex scans, my chief Magos claims, that these ships are parts of several ship classes patched together. On one of these ships were the lance turrets of Oberon class battleships. 25 on each broad side but not able to fire even 5 of them at once."

That brought some frowns on the faces of the assembled people. To have some pirate scum with such patched together hardware that even works was an alarming thing.

"Good thing you destroyed them, huh" said Admiral Schmidt.

"Yes Admiral. As a matter of fact, I was lucky to have destroyed exactly that ship first with the nova cannon" Maxim stated.

"I think, we heard enough for now. Go grab some lunch. We have to conferate now. You are to be back in one hour. Commissar Khelben, you won't leave the Commander's side, understood?" Admiral Siraki said.

"Understood Admiral" came the replay of Lars Khelben.

As Maxim and Lars left the room and the guard in front of it closed the door, Maxim could hear a faint "Man, he's really build like an Ogryn" of one of the persons inside. Going by the grunt of Lars and the tensing of his body, these men were only saved from cartain death by their rank and the presence of an Inquisitor.

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Gorag the Beautiful was standing on the ruins of his stronghold, staring in disbelief on the carnage around him. He had left the planet with a small raid party to acquire slaves and other goods from the close Imperial worlds. Upon his return, he saw his defence fleet in pieces, his two precious star forts destroyed. Hailing the planet brought no response and the sky was covered with dark smoke.

A flight over the planet showed nothing but corpses and ruins. One place was littered with wrecks. His precious titans lay there, broken amiss scores of his tanks and defilers. Overall were dead bodies. As he landed, he searched the bodies for clues. What he found was evidence of a khornate army. Their bodies marked with scars and signs.

And with a cry for vengeance, Gorag the Beautiful, Champion of Slaanesh, promised himself to hunt down the one who did this to his possessions.

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Suddenly the shivering stopped. Victor Harras got up to his feet and surveyed the bridge. Everywhere on the bridge, crew members got up as well, some easy, some hard, some not at all. The demon-crew bound into his ship stopped howling in pain and terror and quiet returned.

"Give me status report. Hail the rest of the fleet. I want status reports in the next 10 minutes."

"The crewmember on the comm station hurried to accomplish the task. Victor Harras was troubled. He tried to remember what happened. Something came through the warp and rolled over his fleet. Then everything went into agony. It felt as a million voices were screaming into his ears. He tried to discern what they were saying. But it took one of the demons to do it.

"IT WAS HIM!!" it shouted in an ethereal voice. "HARKANOS HAS CALLED. HIS PRISON HAS BEEN BROKEN! WE CAN ACCESS HIM NOW!!"

Victor digested this information. If the prison was open, it would be easy to find it and get there. "Did you get a destination?" he asked the demon excitedly.

"Yesssssss" it hissed, already plotting the course.

"Signal the armada!" Victor yelled. "We're entering warp as soon as possible."

And less than 30 minutes later, the armada was on its way to its destination. And Victor smiled.

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_Aemos felt the wave as a slight bump but even then he knew exactly what it was. Somehow, a way to the prison has been opened and Harkanos was calling. He didn't know what to do next. The prison was in real space therefore he couldn't send out his demonic armies and his fleet had already been destroyed in his first attempt to stop the khornate Champion._

_His ploy with the slaaneshi world didn't work either, quiet the opposite. The armada was stronger than ever and the slaaneshi champion was as helpless as him since most of his fleet has been reduced to rubble as well._

_May Tzeentch help him, his only hope lay in the very least dependable race of the universe. He decided to connect to the orcish psykers to take a look at their efforts and see if the relayed orders he gave the psykers were fulfilled after he took so much effort to lead them to their destination via the one secret way into the prison._

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"FASTA YOU IDIOTS!" yelled Gagrok Bonecrusher in what was undoubtedly his way of encouragement. His mekboyz doubled their efforts, lifting metal parts scavenged from the hulk to finish yet another gargant. As he looked around he saw his waaagh in all its glory. Millions of orcs camped under the searing sun, living of the scraps of food they brought and the fungus that dwelled inside the two deliberately crashed hulks. Thousands of mekboyz worked on gargants, big battle wagons, Pikk Upz, and everything else the orcs favor.

He went into his tent and found his brooding weirdboy. It continued to mumble "Masta will be mad. Masta wanted shooting up there" while pointing up to the sky. Gargok suddenly had the urge to drive his axe into the skull of the little creeper. Only the fire in its eyes stopped that motion.

"I'm da Masta of sis waaagh. Not some sing you claim it to be" he snarled at the weirdboy.

Gargoks voice shut him up. Finally. And with that, Gargok went back out, rather putting up with the heat of the near sun instead of the little orc in his tent.

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Maxim was again in front of the Admirals office, waiting for them to call him in. Next to him sat Lars Khelben, having calmed himself during his enormous meal. Maxim never saw someone eat so much. While he almost couldn't eat anything due to his own nervousness, Lars had practically inhaled his foot, eating enough to feed a 5-strong squad of, ironically, ogryns.

One of the guards listened to something in his vox and opened the door, pointing them to move in. Maxim and Lars did as told. While Lars took his place at the door again, Maxim stood to attention in front of the five assembled men.

"Commander Macharius" Admiral Siraki started. "We discussed the matter and came to a conclusion.

"But before I tell you that, let me tell you about the situation. As you know a giant shockwave went through warpspace. As you already theorized, it was caused by the explosion of the Ramilies star fort you conquered. This explosion, however, ripped a hole in the Fallos Belt."

Maxim was speechless. "A hole, Sir?" he stammered.

"Yes a hole" the Admiral continued. "And what's more important, a giant armada of the archenemy is headed towards it. We don't know the exact number, but it's vast. We saw at least 23 capital ships plus escorts and their departure from the warp wasn't finished when the lead ship destroyed the monitor station. As what their designation is, the Inquisitor will fill you in."

The Inquisitor stood up and started walking around.

"What I tell you now, is top secret. If you tell anyone without my permission, you will be declared heretic and executed as one. The same counts for you, commissar Khelben. Did I make myself clear?"

Both men nodded their affirmative and the Inquisitor continued.

"Millennia ago, when the eye of terror opened, the forces of Chaos were as divided as always. A force aligned to the Chaos God we call Tzeentch somehow imprisoned a greater demon of Khorne and he hid the key to this prison on a certain planet. This planet is in a system located inside the Fallos Belt.

"And before you ask, we got these information from ancient texts we salvaged from a former eldar colony."

"May I interfere here" Maxim said. "Why are you telling me this? What role did you plan for me to take?"

It was Admiral Siraki who answered to this question.

"You, Commander Macharius, are to lead the fleet that will pursuit the Chaos armada and stop them from achieving their goal, which is surely to free the demon imprisoned there.

"As for this, you will be hereby promoted to full rank of Rear Admiral and given command over a fleet of approximately 50 ships which is still gathering at the third planet in this system."

Maxim almost fell down. Rear Admiral at 27 years? Command of a full battlefleet of 50 ships? What did he do to deserve this? As if Admiral Siraki read his mind, he smiled.

"You know, Commander… excuse me, Rear Admiral Macharius. Your promotion wasn't solely based on your actions, although it played a big part in it. But the Inquisitor was quite adamant about this matter. If he wants to he will give you an explanation. But for now, you are dismissed. You are freed from duty for two days while the fleet is still gathered."

Maxim looked at the Inquisitor who looked at him again with a look that betrayed confusion. He turned around to go and saw Lars Khelben whose facial expression hasn't flinched. After Maxim he turned around and followed him out.

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_Aemos was furious. Those stupid orcs. Instead of following his plans of using the hulks to build a fleet to repel the khornate armada, they landed and were building land vehicles, their crude titans and prepared battlements. A land battle was the least thing Aemos wanted but he knew that he couldn't change their mind. He felt helpless. As he watched his own timeline at the web of time, he saw a myriad of shadow points, indicating the end of his own existence. _

_Only one timeline continued. He followed it and saw the influence of the human he planned to use before. He shifted his attention to him, deciding on the spot to help this human in all its efforts so it may surviveand thrive until it saved his own existence._

To be continued.

Bonus profile #7

Name: Remus Kornat

Age: 147 years

Height: 5'9''

Weight: 205 lbs

Present rank: Senior Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus, posing as Inquisitor of Ordo Xenos.

Remus Kornat was born on an agri world in the Gothic sector. At the age of five, black ships of the Emperors Inquisition arrived and he was one of 15 kids to be deported. Sensing his psychic abilities, he was spared of the fate the others would endure and was trained to be an inquisitor. Many of his fellows made jokes about his name. His actions however shut most of them up.

After 40 years of being interrogator to the aging Lord Inquisitor Kruger, he was made full Inquisitor. Now his task is to prevent the resurrection of a greater demon of Khorne. The Imperial tarot showed a man who would be somehow crucial for this task and Kornat did what he could to achieve the goal. But somehow, despite his psychic abilities, he couldn't read the man's mind. Something was strange about his young Macharius.

His most notable achievements were:

the purge of 29 heretic cells on Cadia

pursue and execution of the heretic Carlos Arratrabena after a mass murder of 163.750 people with a nerve toxin to achieve demonhood

tracking down of a lesser demon of Nurgle that festered inside a forge world of the Adeptus Mechanicus


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: The invisible man**

_Personal log of Captain … I mean Rear Admiral Maximilian Macharius. I'm still not fully used to being Rear Admiral. Even my men couldn't fully understand yet. I became the youngest captain of a battlecruiser in recorded history. I'm 27 years old and I am Rear Admiral, soon commanding a fleet of 50 ships. I don't even know why I'm getting command of a 50 ship fleet. After a request I was told that my orders will be given by the Inquisition once the fleet is complete._

_Checking the slates I couldn't help but being impressed. On paper it is a nice fleet. 8 capital ships of various sizes and 42 escorts. I was even offered command of a battleship but I declined saying that I'm best used with a Nova cannon at my direct disposal._

"Lieutenant Commander Hek Torr reporting for duty, SIR!" Maxim turned his gaze away from the amassing fleet – his fleet – to see who brought him out of his thoughts. A lean, stocky man in what looks like his forties stood before him saluting. Maxim returned the salute and after an "At ease" the man relaxed. A bit.

"Lieutenant Commander Hector …?" Maxim gestured to show he waited for the rest of the name.

"No Rear Admiral, SIR! My last name is Torr." The man said, almost shouting the Sir.

"And what duty are you reporting to me for, Lieutenant Commander?" Maxim asked.

"I was assigned to be your SIC, SIR!" came the replay.

Again, this shout. Maxim thought about it. He hadn't had a Second-In Command since he became Captain, so it was obvious a regular assignment. But he only knew this man for a few minutes and was already tired of him. Too stiff. He hoped he could convince Admiral Siraki to give him another one.

"I have orders from Admiral Siraki to be your SIC, SIR!" came another shout from Mr. Torr. Maxim winced inwardly. So no way of getting rid of him quickly.

"Very well, Mr. Torr. Welcome to my command crew." said Maxim with a slight sigh, offering him a hand. It was taken and both man shook. "Come with me, and I introduce you to the rest."

With that both men started walking. Maxim only hoped he could soften this man up a little bit so he would lose this shouting habit or he surely would some day shoot him.

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_Aemos would smile if he could. The first step worked. His puppet was on the ship and close to his savior. One thing confused him though. He couldn't read the man. It was as if he wasn't there at all. And the chain around the man's neck had an icon of their corpse emperor attached to hit. Having his puppet close to it hurt Aemos._

_Still, he was close. Now he only had to make sure that this man was successful so he continued existing and forwarding the plans of his master Tzeentch._

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Victor Harrah stood on the bridge of his new flagship, the enormous battle barge _Wrath of Khorne_. It was once known as the _Lion's chariot _when it was in possession of the hated Dark Angels chapter many millennia ago. The barge was part of the reinforcements that came after he cleaned the slaaneshi planet from its inhabitants.

Blessed with the ability he gazed into the currents of the warp. He was close, he could feel it. Harkanos waited out there to be freed after eons of solitude and confinement. Only one thing Victor didn't know. How to breach the lock? It was one thing to find the prison, opening it another.

He thought about the promise. Free Harkanos so he could take his wrath and be rewarded with assured demonhood. Demonhood. The one thing everyone from the lowest cultist to the oldest Marine serving the gods of the warp wanted. And Victor was not far away from finally achieving it.

The demonic entities enslaved into the _Wrath of Khorne _wailed. They received another call from Harkanos and steered the ship into the direction. The rest of his armada followed. Gazing left and right to his great fleet he thought about the more tactical issues. Due to the fights he had to fight, their supply of torpedoes was tight. He had a small part of his fleet raid an Imperial supply depot. Now several giant transporters were on their way to him to feed them the ammunition they'd need if they encountered stiff resistance at their destination.

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Maxim was staring out of the armaplast windows of the station. Docked in front of him was his new ship. He simply couldn't believe it. He always wanted to keep the _Resilient_ for its Nova cannon because he was a good shot and was able to hit 95 of 100 targets.

But once he was shown the replacement, all of his vows of rejecting it were blown from his head. In front of him lay the _Inexorable Justice_, a fearsome Apocalypse class battleship.

The Apocalypse class was ancient. It was the precursor of the venerable Retribution class and it featured a Nova cannon in the prow, which was the main reason for Maxim to take it.

Maxim recalled what he read about the ship. It was created to counter the ever growing number of battleships and grand cruisers that poured out of the Eye of Terror leading chaos raid fleets. The ship was perfect in that role. Its most distinctive feature is the fearsome lance armament along its broadsides. And with a little tweak these lances had a far greater range than a normal lance turret. The downside of this is that the array conduits suffer an increasing unreliability when stressed that way. And due to the power drain the ship becomes slow and sluggish. In the midst of battles this could be dangerous.

Maxim took his eyes ways from the _Justice_. Next to it was the second ship he was surprised to find in his fleet. It was a relative new design, called Titan class battlecruiser. The Titan is directly derived from the Gothic class cruiser. Many Admirals and Lord Admirals saw the successes of lance-specific cruisers and wondered why there never was a lance-specific battlecruiser design.

Not that they didn't try. The Adeptus Mechanicus constructed a heavy cruiser which they dubbed Acheron class. It was rumored that they used alien technology to generate the power output that was needed to feed the massive amounts of lance turrets. They somehow succeeded only to see their ship and every schematic stolen by chaos forces.

It was Lord Admiral Ravensburg, Commander of Battlefleet Gothic who authorized the design and construction of the Titan class. It uses advanced reactor systems, allowing superior broadside range compared to the Gothic class as well as an added dorsal lance battery. The prototype, the _Light of Rectitude_, performed so well in ist newborn years that it paved the way for production on a larger scale.

Maxim snapped out of his thoughts when a hand smashed on his right shoulder. He looked around and saw Anastasius grinning at him.

"Rear Admiral" he said smiling. "I came to say good bye for now. I'll be staying on the Resilient. An Apocalypse doesn't have fighter wings aboard."

His tone got a more serious note. "Do you know anything about the mission wer're about to start? An enormous fleet assembled out there. I can't imagine we're just doing some patrols. No, this must be a big thing."

"I don't know" Maxim admitted. "I was told that I'll be briefed by the Inquisitor. And you are right. With that kind of firepower, the mission must be big and important."

"More important than you can ever imagine in your wildest dreams, Mr. Macharius" a strong voice said from behind. Both men turned and saw Inquisitor Kornat standing at the door of the viewing bay Maxim used.

"It's time for your briefing. Come with me please."

Despite the please at the end, Maxim knew that he'd be a fool to refuse. So he walked along and prepared for what could be his most important mission.

Or his assured death.

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Farseer Syrdan Ashal sat in the center of the dome chamber, thousands of wraithbone trees around him. He concentrated hard on the voices around him. He had had many visions over the last decades, concerning him, the mon-keigh and the eldar. Everything always went to one point. One event will cause utter destruction for both races. When the forces of Chaos poured out of the eye towards the Cadian gate and besieged the stricken planet to the brink of extinction.

Syrdan thought the point was reached. But the mon-keigh somehow prevailed, despite losing many worlds and ships. The beloved Eldrad Ulthran died at the peak of the final battle when his very soul was pulled inside the corrupted mind of one of the talismans of Vaul, or Blackstone fortresses, as the humans called it.

Gazing into the myriads of futures he again saw everything culminating into a shadow point. A point where the future lay hidden. What irritated and frightened him even more was the fact that there weren't any lines behind the point, indicating the end of all times.

A slight flash caught his attention. An erratic timeline just converged with something. Syrdan took a closer look and saw an almost invisible timeline. He reached into it with his mind and found a person who wasn't there. An invisible man. An invisible mon-keigh. And a chaotic timeline just converged with it, meaning that some chaotic force used this invisible man.

Syrdan poured every ounce of concentration he had into it. Sensing his strain, the amassed souls of eldar inside the thousands of wraithbone trees reached out to him, lending him their strength. And with that help, Syrdan managed to see the continued timeline behind the shadow point. It was the almost invisible one.

In that instant, he decided that whatever or whoever this mon-keigh was, he had to help him or the universe would come to an end. Focusing his sight on the timelines between the conversion and the shadow point, he looked for a place.

And found it. He instantly called his exarches and ship captains to set a course.

Into the Fallos Belt.

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"With all due respect Inquisitor, but you can't be serious!" Maxim blurted out after he heard what his mission was.

The Inquisitor didn't move an inch and continued gazing at Maxim.

"Of course I'm serious. Do you really think I'd joke on such an important matter?"

"So let me get this straight" Maxim replied. "You want me to take the fleet INTO the Fallos Belt to prevent a chaos armada, which outnumbers presumably 3 to 1 or even worse, from freeing a demon which is supposedly locked somewhere inside the Belt?"

"Yes, that's about it" the Inquisitor said.

"And do you have any idea how we could get into the Belt? It's impregnable." Maxim asked?

"Yes" came the reply. "I'm sure you remember the shockwave that killed your astropaths after you destroyed the 4 main pirate groups of this sector."

"As if I could forget it" Maxim interjected.

"The Ramilies star fort that jumped into the warp" Kornat continued, ignoring Maxims interjection. "traveled only for a short time. It went to a certain spot inside the warp and exploded. The explosion was strong enough to rip a hole into the Belt. The only thing left to do is finding it, entering the belt and prevent Chaos to prevail. The difficulty lies in the time. We could either be the first there, allowing us to take a defensive position or we come in second and have to fight our way through a much larger fleet."

"Ok" Maxim said. "Let's suppose we find the opening and get into the belt and we find the prison this demon is locked up in. What do we do then? What if the Chaos fleet just has to send an astropathic command to open the prison? Then all we did would be in vain anyway. And what could we do to prevent the Chaos fleet from achieving their goal? Can we destroy the prison?

"And what other measures are there? The Chaos fleet comes with more than 100 ships, maybe even way more. They wouldn't amass an armada like that if it wasn't necessary."

"I don't know" the Inquisitor admitted. "All I know is, that if we don't stop them, the universe will come to an end."

Seeing Maxims bewildered look, he continued.

"I consulted the Imperial tarot several dozen times. All lead to the same conclusion. If chaos succeeds here, it'd be the end of the world as we know it."

"Why me?" Maxim asked.

"Beg pardon?"

"Why me? You seemed to take lots of efforts to place me in command of a fleet that is about to embark on the most important mission since the defense of the last black crusade. There are a lot more experienced fleet commanders out there. So, why me?"

"Because the tarot said so" Remus Kornat said. "It said, that we will prevail with the help of the invisible man who wore the mark of the God-Emperor."

"Invisible man? Mark of the God-Emperor? What the warp are you talking about, Inquisitor?" Maxim asked.

The Inquisitor sighed. It was the most visible sign of discomfort since Maxim had seen him.

"Do you remember when you got this necklace?" he asked, pointing at the necklace Maxim had around his neck.

"I don't know. I think I was three or four years old. My father, may the Emperor rest his soul, told me to never take it off because when I wear it, I'll have the Emperors blessing." Maxim answered, looking at the icon with the glowing eyes. "What does that have to do with me being an invisible man?"

"Hm. I think, this icon of the Emperor is more than you think it is. May I? he asked, indicating his desire to touch it.

"By all means" Maxim replied.

As the inquisitor studied the icon, the glow in the Emperors suddenly went dark. The inquisitor squirmed visibly, almost fainting. Suddenly there was the noise of running boots outside the briefing room and all other signs of confusion. The inquisitor continued fumbling with the icon until the glow came back to the eyes, causing him to breathe a sigh of relief.

There was a knock on the door and after the inquisitor's permission an aide entered.

"Lord Inquisitor, there was an astropathic block all across the system. No astropath could transmit any messages and a large convoy fell out of the warp. It was as if the warp ceased to exist for a while. Admiral Siraki requested your help in solving this mystery."

"Tell the Admiral I already solved it and will brief him later about it."

After the aide left, Kornat turned to Maxim.

"It's as I thought. You're an untouchable."

"Excuse me?" Maxim asked confused.

"An untouchable. Or blank. Like an anti psyker. Blanks create a field around them able to nullify any warp activity by there mere presence. And like psykers, blanks can be classified by the diameter of this null-field. For example, I'm a strong gamma level psyker, maybe even weak beta, Alpha being the highest level.

"Going by the reports about a system wide blackout, I'd wager that you are an alpha plus blank. The icon you have around your neck is a limiter. When it's activated, indicated by the glow in the eyes, the nullifying effect is limited on you. Which is the reason I can't read your mind. If you deactivate the limiter, like I did, then a vast area around you is nullified.

"Well, now you know what you are and why you have to be in command. The survival of the Imperium and even the whole universe somehow depends on you and your decisions. I will accompany you on this mission. Now get ready. I will brief the Admiral now."

With that, Remus Kornat walked out of the briefing room and left Maxim more confused than before. All he knew was that he somehow had to achieve a miracle or the universe would end. And he couldn't think of anything that would make that possible.

_To be continued_

_Authors note: Hey folks. Despite the time it takes me sometimes to upload another chapter, I haven't stopped writing. It's just hard to continue when you only get one review from the same person over and over again (thanks grayangle ). I'm sure other people read this too but it'd be nice to know if you like the story as it is or if you have any suggestions to it. Just some form of appreciation _

_Regards_

_Glenn_

_aka_

_son-goku5_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: How?**

_Personal Log of Rear Admiral Maximilian Macharius. The fleet that was assembled and put under my command is vast. The size outnumbers even the fleet that Lord Admiral Ravensburg assembled for the battle of Gethesmane during the Gothic War. 14 capital ships and 36 escort vessels. But according to the records we got from the destroyed watch stations, it may be too small for us to achieve victory._

_The last few weeks were dull, to put it bluntly. We spend most of the time in the warp, heading towards the system the star fort vanished from in hope to find the hole that was ripped into the belt. The Inquisitor is accompanying us on this voyage. So far he was surprisingly companionate. When I'm not on duty or practicing simulated shots with the Nova cannon of my new ship, we're playing regicide or discussing theoretical matters about the Imperium._

_Right now we're on our way to a supply station at the system edge of a forge world to replenish our loads of ammunition. This world in particular is strange. The warp exit point is more than two weeks away from the supply dock. To reach the forge world it takes at least one week more. But the works of the mechanicus is an art of its own, or so it seems._

"My game" Maxim said as he scored another win against the Inquisitor. Khornat looked at him with mixture of puzzlement and insurrection.

As Maxim collected the pieces, he asked the Inquisitor the question that was on his mind for a while now.

"Inquisitor, you forbid me to turn off my limiter for any reason. But what about extreme circumstances?"

"There are no extreme circumstances I can think of, Maximilian" replied Khornat, surprisingly using Maxims first name. "If you turn your limiter off, it shuts off everything related to the warp. Astropathic communications or navigational travels. Imagine there is a space hulk full of Genestealers and your ability rips it out off the warp. It could doom a world. When it was turned off the last time, several alpha class astropaths blacked out for hours and 23 merchant ships were torn out of the warp."

"But if I'm not in an imperial system? Or if one of my ships sustains a moral threat?"

He let those words hand in the air for a moment. A moral threat, the presence of a warp entity on the ship, was something that could happen every time when in battle with a chaos fleet.

"In that case it's most likely approved." Khornat said after a lengthy moment. "But it's the absolute exception."

The inquisitor hold his ear for a moment, listening to something.

"One of my scout parties found the hole. As soon as we have reloaded ammunition, we're heading to our goal."

The inquisitor hold his ear again and closed his eyes. When he was finished, Maxim looked at him curiously.

"Telepathic contact to my astropath. I ordered my other scouts to the target area to possibly set up a watch station. We'll have better chances of survival, when we know what to expect."

Maxim nodded at that. "One thing we can expect for sure. It's going to be very messy."

Khornat could only agree to that.

Then the warp exit alarm sounded and both men went to the bridge.

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Rellon Kurgan wiped his bloodied hands over his face, enjoying the taste it gave him. The slave he just disemboweled still twitched under him. He was yearning for a fight. He had pledged himself and his warband to Victor Harras after he felt the call of Harkanos. He commandeered a Murder class cruiser and a squadron of two Infidel class raiders. He had three Infidels under his command but one got destroyed in the last engagement.

Kurgan cursed loud. His small fleet lacked fighter support and it showed. His orders were to attack the imperial supply dock and raid all torpedoes he could pack into the transport, that was given to him.

At first, the attack went smoothly. The defenses of the outermost supply station were quickly overwhelmed and the crew was killed so fast that Kurgan hadn't even the chance of participating in the fight. He got the slave crews over and after only ten hours, the transport was fully loaded with over a thousand imperial torpedoes and the remains of the supply station drifted into the atmosphere of the gas giant it had orbited.

Now he was on his way out of the system to reunite his small fleet with the massive armada that Victor Harras amassed. And then, he hoped, he would finally get to a real battle. So deep in his thoughts, he almost overheard his mutated sensor tech.

"Lord Kurgan, multiple contacts in front of us."

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"Captain, multiple contacts in front of us." Mjollnir said. Despite being the rank of Rear Admiral, on this ship, Maxim was the captain.

Mjollnir, part of his new bridge crew related the picture to Maxims command station. He saw a Murder class cruiser, two Infidel raiders and a large transport that somehow resembled an old galaxy class transport ship, although it was strangely shaped. Both infidels showed signs of damage but the Murder was pristine.

"Time to test our new Nova cannon in real battle conditions" Maxim said, fitting the target helmet onto his head. His left eye saw the area of space in front of him, as if he was sitting in front of the cannon while his right eye saw a three dimensional image of the area of space around him. With this tool it was easier to see the estimated distance between the own ship and the target.

"Murder identified as the _Bloodbath. _Helm, bring the ship face to face with the it" ordered Hek Torr, Maxims second in command. "Light cruisers and escorts flank the bigger ships and targeting the Infidels. _Resilient_, start your fighter wings and prepare for interception of possible enemy torpedo strikes. Squadrons _Hades_ and_ Revenge of Orar _prepare to engage the Infidels."

During the voyage to this system, Maxim was able to loosen Torr up a little bit. He still was a bit stiff for Maxims taste but at least he wasn't shouting a "SIR!" after every sentence. Apart from this, he was good company and sometimes showed knowledge about things he never came in contact with. And his style of command was extraordinary good. His orders made always tactical sense and were appropriate to the situation. The thing he lacked a bit was tactical improvisation.

His decision of putting two Falchion class squadrons against the Infidels was another sound decision.

Maxim focused his attention back to the images in front of him. The _Bloodbath_ was directly in front of him. He started loading the cannon and estimated the range. He was whispering 'steady, steady' to himself as the Murder started shooting its powerful prow lance batteries at the _Resilient _and ripped her void shields apart.

After the cannon was loaded and Maxim was sure about the range, he pulled the trigger. The plasma ball was bigger than the one he fired from the R_esilient_ and went through space almost with the speed of light. But somehow the _Bloodbath_ seemed to have anticipated the shot and was able to roll out of the way.

And then something happened that had hadn't happened for a long time.

He missed.

At least his target.

What he didn't miss was the large transport ship that came lumbering behind the Murder. Since it went to follow the _Bloodbath_, the plasma ball hit it directly in the middle of its fat side. The plasma ball went right through the single void shield and the thin armor directly into the cargo hold where it ripped through the torpedoes that were stacked there in their hundreds.

And although they shouldn't explode by anything else than a command given by their own machine spirits, the warheads couldn't withstand the energy that came from a fast moving miniature sun.

It took exactly 2.64 seconds after the impact for the first warhead to explode.

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Rellon Kurgan cursed loudly. He targeted the carrier cruiser first instead of going after the battleship. Thanks to the glow the nova cannon emitted he knew that it was about to shoot at his ship and was able to avoid the hit. He was about to order the new target for his lance turrets when suddenly every alarm klaxon on the bridge started wailing and every rune turned red. Before he could react to the alarms, a fiery shock wave ripped through his ship. Kurgan screamed a silent scream as his lungs filled with fire and his body was immolated in less than a second.

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Maxim watched in shock as the catastrophe unfolded. His hit on the transporter had ignited its cargo and it exploded with a giant explosion. The resulting shock wave destroyed both the cruiser and its escort ships.

"Well, that went well. What in the name of the emperor was the transporter carrying?" Hek Torr was asking from the SIC station.

"It's obvious, Mr. Torr" said Inquisitor Khornat. "The same cargo we traveled here to load. Torpedoes. And lots of them." He checked the auspex. "And they destroyed the supply station. So we can forget of getting ammunition."

"Couldn't we hail the forge world to send us more from their factories?" Maxim asked.

"Yes, but it would take a month until they'd be here." replied Khornat. "And time is something we don't have."

"Comm, call the fleet. Line up in formation. We're heading back into the warp and towards the hole in the Fallos belt. We'll have to manage without full loads."

And less than an hour later, his fleet was back inside the warp on route to their destination.

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On the bridge of the W_rath of Khorne_ Victor Harras watched as the last slaves were sacrificed. He started chanting the words of summoning. A minute later, the bloodthirster that gave him the order for this search stood before him, large and dangerous.

"_Victor Harras, you must hurry."_

"We will continue once our supply arrived. How do I open the prison once I found it?" Victor asked

"_Your supplies have been destroyed by an imperial fleet. And the prison opens in the way of Khorne."_

With these words the bloodthirster vanished again. Victor thought about what the demon said. _It opens in the way of Khorne._ He couldn't think of the solution to this riddle. But his supplies destroyed? Now the outcome of a rescue mission wasn't so assured anymore.

But nevertheless, the armada was on its way again, only hours away from their destination.

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Gragrok Bonecrusher threw the wailing weirdboy out of his house. "WHEN WILL THEY COME, YOU SNOTLINGSUCKER?!?" he screamed, feeling his anger and frustration over the long quiet period rising in his gut. They were on this god forsaken hellhole of a planet for over 6 weeks now, having been promised a battle like no battle before. Now most of the orcs felt like him, several clans made open war on each other and the sand of the planet spanning desert got in every pore.

"Tomorrow, Boss." the weirdboy screamed. "I promise."

"You promised me a lot of things. And what did it get me?" Gragrok was about to take another swing at the puny figure but suddenly its eyes burst with a fiery green light. The last thing the weirdboy could do was scream the words "THEY'RE HERE!!" before his head exploded and sprayed Gragrok and several other orcs around them with its gore and blood.

Gragrok licked it up and smiled. "MAKE READY! TOMORROW WE WILL FIGHT!"

His underlings hurried to carry out his orders, unable to hide their relief.

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Victor Harras couldn't hide his anticipation. In a few minutes they'd finally see the prison that Harkanos was bound in to so many millennia. And whatever else awaited him. He hoped for guardians so he could fight them. It has been too long since he spilled blood. Without any alarm the fleet left the warp and found itself inside a strange nebula.

Another 15 minutes on high speed and the whole armada left the dust cloud and Victor got his first view on his goal. A yellow ball closely orbiting a red dwarf. Auspex reading showed a temperature of almost boiling point. His unarmored troops would have a hard time there if he needed them.

A second look confirmed the need of his troops. In orbit of the desert planet, ten hulks lumbered. He couldn't see any ships but that didn't mean, that they weren't there. He ordered his fleet together and they made good speed closer.

The first gun turrets on one of the hulks already started shooting, the shots going wild even if one of his ships had been in range. That confirmed his suspicions.

"Orcs" he said to himself. The greenskins had a strange habit of showing up on the strangest planets but their estimated numbers must go into the millions. As they were coming closer he could make out a green spot on the planet. It looked like a jungle. A moving jungle.

"To all warships. Engage the space hulks one and three, destroy them or drive them away. Clear a path for our transports. Once this is done, the transports are to make full speed into orbit and unload every soldier they have. Landing zone coordinates follow. Once were down, form a line. But nobody attacks yet, wait for the rest of our forces to land. We'll have enough to kill for everyone."

A deafening roar echoed through the comm when every person or mutant on every ship screamed his joy about the upcoming fight. As one the ships started towards one of the designated hulks, unloading what torpedoes they had on them.

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"This data is accurate?" Maxim asked Khornat.

"Yes, it is. The chaos fleet left the warp and engaged the hulks that orbit around the planet." came the reply.

"Well, according to this data, the chaos fleet is vast, so a direct attack would be suicide. We should hide in the dust cloud first, to assess the situation. The images show a number of space hulks in orbit. We could wait until they thinned themselves out enough and we can finish the remains." suggested Torr.

"We don't know if we can wait that long. We don't know the means of how the chaos scum is going to achieve their goal." Inquisitior Khornat said.

"Still, we don't rush headlong into a no-win situation." maxim said. "We go with the first plan and hide in the dust could. After exit we travel near the edge of it so we are out of the way of the warp exit point. That way a straggler of the chaos fleet can't spot us. Objections?"

None came. 35 minutes later, the fleet exited the warp and headed for the hiding point. Two hours later, Maxim, Torr and Khornat were again in the strategium.

"Okay, Inquisitor, you should call your scouts and have them send some images and numbers of the forces against us. We'll need everything we can get, before we can make a move."

"Very well." replied Khornat. He held his finger to his ear again and shut his eyes. Minutes later the first visual data appeared on the screens in front of them.

What Maxim saw took the air from him. Everywhere he looked, he saw Chaos ships of every size. Giant battleships, cruisers of every size, scores of escort ships and one immense battle barge heading towars two of the space hulks that were closest to them. Transporters, three of them even larger than the battle barge headed towards the planet in the wake of the battleships. Hundreds of fighters and bombers flew between the ships, forming an almost impenetrable shield around the transporters and the battleships.

The first explosions were already ripping through the hulks that Maxim recognized as torpedo impacts. The first long range lance beams ripped in both directions between the opposing forces but until now no ship was destroyed.

"Okay" Maxim said. "We are in big trouble." Neither Torr nor Khornat could argue with that.

"Now Inquisitior" Maxim said again, "HOW do we beat that?"

_To be continued_


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: A destiny unfold**

„Well, Inquisitor? What do you say?"

Khornat was lost for words. He had expected a large chaos fleet but this size came as a surprise to him.

"I have no idea yet." he admitted

The inquisitor's scouts were located on the second moon of the planet. It had the size of a large asteroid and its orbit was high above the planets north pole so they had everything in sight at all times, except for anything that happened above the south pole of the planet.

They sent data over data, showing the events as they unfolded, only with a time difference of a few minutes. They saw the fleet engage the space hulks in close combat after their initial torpedo attacks didn't destroy them. Volleys over volleys of lance beams and macro cannon shells impacted on the hulks immense armor, ripping out tons of adamantium and other materials. The returns were no less devastating, the active guns of the hulks spitting out lances and shells in a fast rate, the mass of firepower matching the inaccuracy of the orcs.

Here and there Maxim could see a Nova cannons plasma ball emanating from the second hulk. The one or two times it hit yet, it scored a kill. During the battle the transport ships arrived in the planets orbit and started unloading their cargo. Two of the massive transports unloaded 6 massive haulers each, entering the atmosphere with a burning tail. The other transporter let loose a volley of shell looking objects which Maxim identified as drop pods. Dozens. Hundreds. Thousands. Each drop pod could pack up to a hundred troopers, if they squeezed in there. And going with what he heard about chaos troops, he could well believe.

"There must be a million or so soldiers in there." Torr said. Maxim could only agree. All the while, smaller transporters spilled out their cargo. Maxim saw more drop pods and larger transport flyers, that obviously carried armored vehicles to the ground. And there were hundreds of them as well. Even the warships began to spit out drop pods. And some of them looked like the ones the Adeptus Astartes was using.

All three men were so taken by the events that unfolded before them that they almost overheard the alarm klaxon and the voice of the acting captain.

"Captain to the bridge immediately." came from the speakers.

After Maxim was back on his chair, he saw what caused the alarm. Behind them were eldar ships. At least two dozens. And the alarm was the alarm for an active target lock on the own ship. Hek Torr was the first to react.

"All ships, target eldar and open fire . . ."

Before he could finish his order, Khornat interrupted him.

"This is Inquisitor Khornat to all ships. No one fires on the eldar. I repeat, no one fires on the eldar. This is an order give by the Inquisition."

Maxim looked at him furiously. "By all respect but they will kill us. . ."

"They won't" Khornat interrupted again. "If they wanted to they'd already have done so."

Maxim checked the auspex. None of the eldar ships made a move.

"We're being hailed." said Torr, who was standing at the comm station.

"By whom?" Maxim asked.

"By them." Torr answered, pointing to the eldar ships.

"I take the call in the strategium. Inquisitor, will you accompany me, please?"

"Of course." came the reply and Khornat followed him.

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Victor Harras stepped out of the drop pod and the heat almost hammered him to the ground. He quickly put on his helmet and used the electronics to get a clear picture of the situation.

His titans were almost ready. The last two banelords stepped from their transporters and wailed as their taxis started their engines to get into orbit again. Using a sensor feed from the _Flamma Ultrix, _he saw the approaching orc forces. They outnumbered them at least four to one. Between the orcs he could see armored vehicles of all sizes and behind them lumbered several titan-sized machines the orcs called gargants.

Around him, transporters and drop pods landed, spilling out their cargo and lifting back into space to get more soldiers and vehicles. Victor would need everything he had. A time estimate showed less than 45 minutes before the orcs were in firing range of his own titans.

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"Greetings, Rear Admiral Maximilian Macharius." the eldar said with his melodic voice in fluent gothic.

"Greetings to you too, . . ." Maxim paused as he realized that he didn't know who he talked to.

"My name is Syrdan Ashal. We have important things to discuss."

When the eldar said nothing more, Maxim looked at the Inquisitor. He slowly nodded and Maxim turned his attention back to the alien.

"Very well. Meet me on my ship. My second-in-command will meet you on landing dock two and escort you to our conference room. We will wait for you there."

"Agreed." said the eldar and cut the link.

Maxim and Khornat went back to the bridge.

"Mr. Torr, assemble an honor guard and await our guests in landing dock two. Then escort them to the conference room."

Torr just nodded and left the bridge.

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Victor Harras checked the readings. The landing crews made record time. Almost every vehicle and soldier was ready and the titans waited for his orders. The orcs were only seconds away from firing range. It made Victor somewhat proud of himself that every soldier, tank commander and titan followed his orders of not shooting unnecessarily.

The orcs on the other hand were not that disciplined. Their shots were far out of range and still their tank like vehicles unloaded shot after shot, wasting valuable ammunition and further heating up their already heat producing vehicles.

As the orc line came into range, Victor issued a simple command. Fire. And everybody with a gun that was in range started unloading. The titans made a score of kills with one volley, the _Flamma Ultrix_ in particular, killing thousands of orcs and several vehicles with one shot of its plasma annihilator. The other titans scored hits as well, killing thousands of orcs as well. After the first volley was over, more than 30.000 orcs lay dead in the sand of the unnamed planet.

Victor knew that this couldn't stop the orcs in any way and soon their own titan variants were in range of his forces. The large machines spew giant cannonballs out of their various guns, ripping holes into the chaos lines with their deadly load. Two of the bigger titans, called 'Mega-Gargants' by the orcs, one with a large ordinary cannon coming out of its belly and another with a similar sized gun coming out of its 'mouth' like a cigar shot almost simultaneously at one of his banelords.

The 'cigar' shot hit the void shield protecting its left leg, completely collapsing it. Normally it wasn't a big problem and the shield would be reformed within seconds but the second mega-gargant also somehow targeted that same leg. Its cannonball landed in front it his front, killing dozens of foot troops as it landed and continued bouncing over the soft sand, crushing a leman russ and several more soldiers before hitting the unshielded leg and completely ripping it off at the knee.

Its fall was like in slow motion. At first it seemed to Victor that the titan would remain standing but then it started falling to the left. When it hit the ground it was like an earthquake. Close-by tanks were lifted several feet into the air before crushing back to earth and many soldiers were thrown to the ground by the tremor.

His titans and tank crews were able to unload another volley before the orcs reached their line. Now the battle was really on.

And Victor dived into it with a frenzy.

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Gragrok Bonecrusher disemboweled another of these for blood screaming lunatics. How he loved this fight. An enemy that was as much fond of battle as he and his orcs were. And although the enemy killed several thousand of his orcs with one blow from the warmachines they called titans, he still had the upper hand. Suddenly Gragrok spotted a richly ornated chaos warrior that waded through his boys like a hot knife through butter and knew the enemy he had to slay.

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"The battle has begun." Maxim stated to no one in particular. Inquisitor Khornat nodded at that as all 6 persons in the room saw the explosions visible on the auspex data sent by the Inquisitor's scouts.

"Ok" he said, turning his attention to the three eldar that came to his ship. "What is your part in this?"

The farseer, Syrdan Ashal, fixed Maxim with a stare. As if he had something confirmed he slowly nodded.

"You are the invisible one who can save the universe from this . . ."

"Yes I know already" Maxim interrupted. "I thought you might have a plan on how we can actually save this situation. By the looks of events out there, I don't think, even our combined fleets have a chance of winning, much less surviving."

"Very well. I will tell you. Aeons ago, after the what you call Eye of Terror opened, a great demon of the Lord of Changes imprisoned a greater demon of Khorne. The name of the demon is Harkanos. This prison was designed to keep him locked up forever. The way that was achieved was simple. Hide the lock inside the prisoner so that no one can open it from the outside."

"Wait a minute" Maxim interrupted again. "You mean, the planet is the lock. That would mean, that the Fallos Belt . . ."

"Yes, this not moving warp storm is the imprisoned Harkanos. Down there on the planet is a battle raging for the key."

"What is the key exactly?" asked Inquisitor Khornat.

"We don't know. The prophecy says 'The prison is opened the way of Khorne'."

"Blood." Hek Torr suddenly said.

"What?" Maxim asked.

"What what?" Torr asked as well.

"You said blood."

"I did?"

"Yes. Why did you say it?"

"I don't even remember saying it. I just thought about it, when the farseer said something about the way of Khorne."

"That's it. Blood and killing is the way of Khorne. So actually, this battle down there could be the key."

Before he could say anything else, his astropath came running into the room.

"IT'S MOVING! IT HAS STARTED MOVING!" he screamed and passed out.

Maxim opened a channel to the medical station. "Medical emergency in the captains conference room."

Two minutes later, the astropath was carried away. Maxim turned to the farseer again.

"Your ships have advanced sensors. Could you check the Fallos Belt?"

The farseer closed his eyes. It seemed to Maxim, that he somehow communicated with his ship.

"It moves. Very slowly. But it's getting faster every second."

"Damn. I knew it." Maxim said. The Inquisitor looked at him slightly puzzled.

"Don't you get it?" Maxim said to him. "It's obvious. The planet is the lock and blood is the key. The more they kill each other down there, the more blood is poured into the planet. The more blood the more stronger the demon becomes. Until it's strong enough to break free. Then we'll have a raging warp storm around us."

"My god, you could be right." Inquisitor Khornat said, making the sign of the aquila. "That means, we have to find a way to stop this battle before more blood gets spilled."

"Yeah, stop a battle between khornates and orcs. Nothing could be easier." Maxim said sarcastically. "What should we do? Hand them milk and cookies and tell them to make a break while we build a wall to seperate them?"

"No need to get sarcastic. This is serious." Khornat said in a harsh voice.

"Is there any way at all to stop them without further bloodshed?" Syrdan Ashal suddenly spoke up. Maxim almost got startled a bit and realized that he had almost forgotten their presence.

"Only if we can disintegrate them all at once." Hek Torr said.

"That'd be a solution" Maxim said. "But that would mean to dive in there, destroy every enemy ship and bombard the planet with lances. Macro shells wouldn't work since they explode and spill the blood of everyone they rip apart."

"How about virus bombs? You have them on board, don't you?" Inquisitor Khornat asked.

Maxim frowned. Virus bombs were the worst weapon of the Imperium, able to kill an entire planet in seconds by releasing a virus so deadly, that every organic material dies within seconds. When no more organic material was present the virus turned on itself, leaving only a dead rock in space.

"No, the orcs and chaos troops would be killed, but their fluids would soak the planet. So it could even accelerate the process we want to stop."

"Cyclone." Torr said.

"Cyclone?" Khornat asked.

"What?"

"You said Cyclone." Maxim said.

"I did?"

"Never mind that now. But he's right. We have a load of 40 Cyclone torpedoes. They are designed to burn the atmosphere of a planet by igniting the oxygen." Maxim said excited.

"Would be a way, but how do we get them to the planet? We would have to reach the planet's orbit and even if we could break through the chaos armada, there are still the space hulks to worry about."

Khornat was right. They'd have to charge a force that outnumbered them almost 6 to one and then a bunch of space hulks that orbited the planet.

"And we also have to get at least 30 torpedoes down there successfully because the atmosphere is so thin. And that means, getting there unscathed staying there for a couple of minutes and then, if possible, getting out."

"Couldn't we use fighters and bombers?" Khornat asked.

"No, the cyclones are too big even for the marauders the Resilient has on board." Maxim answered

"I have a suggestion." the farseer said. "Our own ship to ship torpedoes are smaller and faster than yours and can travel a longer distance. Would it be possible to mount the warheads of these cyclones on our torpedoes? Our data shows that your bombers would be able to carry one of our torpedoes."

All three humans looked dumbfounded at the farseer.

"Inquisitor" Maxim said. "Get to the communications station. Convince the tech priests and Magi of this solution. We need their cooperation to take the warheads of the torpedoes and mount them to the eldar variants. Then we have to build special holding systems on the belly of the marauders so they can hold these bombs. I will personally call Magos Harûn on the Resilient. He and I have a good relationship so I think, he will approve.

"Farseer, call your ship. Have them deliver 40 of your torpedoes to the Resilient. Mr. Torr, get to the magazines and order the man to load the 40 cyclones we have into the cargo shuttles. They must go to the Resilient as well."

Even the eldar and the Inquisitor started to carry out his orders without any objections. 'Maybe' Maxim thought 'we can really survive this.'

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_Aemos had a hard time listening to the conversation. He was sure that Harkanos felt him while his presence was inside him. The plan was sound and now he had to do anything he could to support it._

_He searched the asteroid he had brought into the warp before. After he found it, he gave it a final push and watched entering the hole in Harkanos and exiting the warp at the very position it had to come out._

_And Aemos knew, even when his enemy would be freed now, he was too weak to face a strong demon like Aemos._

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The refit took almost ten hours. Maxims old friend Anastasius told him they were ready. Now, all six were in the stragegium and although Maxim had doubts that it would be wise to show the eldar the heart of the ship, he knew it was necessary.

"Okay, the marauders are loaded and ready to take off. Now the only problem is, how do we get them there? Even with all the fighter support we have combined, the enemy still outnumbers us badly. Not even the with your advanced technology, farseer, is it possible to get everyone there."

All six said nothing, assessing the situation. As Maxim watched the auspex readings of the system, he spotted something at its edge.

"What is that?" he asked. Torr went to the screen and enlarged the picture.

"It's an asteroid." he said.

"Hm. Give me its trajectory through the system with and a speed assessment."

Torr followed the order and soon Maxim saw a red line over the monitor showing the route of the asteroid and the estimated time for it to cross the system.

Maxim couldn't help but smile as a plan formed in his head.

"When a human smiles in a bad situation as this, he usually has a plan." said the farseer.

"You can bet your ears, farseer." Maxim said, still smiling.

"Okay, listen up. This asteroid is passing us in range of 100.000 kilometers here" he said, pointing to a point of the route near their own position. "We will have the marauders and two wings of fighters waiting at the edge of the dust cloud. When the point is reached, the fighters and bombers start and fly into the asteroid's tail."

"In its tail?" Khornat asked.

"Yes. The tail will hide them from any sensors. If anyone bothers to scan it, they will most likely show as metallic debris flying in its wake. The asteroid passes the planet here" Maxim said, pointing to a spot on the other side of the planet. "The chaos armada is on the other side and only two hulks are close enough to shoot. Since all their fighters are busy destroying each other, they'll most likely have none left to engage our force. And if they do, the fighter screen will protect the bombers until they made their run. I doubt that the guns of the space hulks will have a sophisticated enough targeting system to lock on to our bombers. Objections? Questions?"

None came. Maxim issued the orders to the Resilient and watched the bombers and fighters start. He could only wait now.

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Victor Harras screamed as he cut through another large orc and watched the others flee from his vicinity. He took the time to assess the situation. Half his titans were gone, felled by the gargants and one even by the combined firepower of the large tanks the orcs were fielding. All in all, the battle wasn't in his favor. The immense heat killed a lot of his unarmored foot soldiers and the heat generated by the titans and tanks only added to that. The orcs didn't seem to have these problems, enduring the heat with their toughness and enjoying the fight too much to be plagued by the conditions.

His 6 remaining titans were facing 9 of the gargants. One of the mega variants was down, killed by the plasma annihilator of the _Flamma Ultrix. _His tank forces fared better, having the upper hand simply be laying more disciplined fire into the enemy formations. In this moment, he saw a squadron of 12 Land Raiders pour their fire simultaneously into one of the gargants belly, punching a hole into the armor. A defiler trod behind them, and fired his main cannon, hitting the hole the lasers punched. Something inside the gargant exploded and suddenly a chain reaction started, ripping the gargant apart. The debris flew in every direction, most of it into the orc ranks, again killing thousands of greenskins in the process.

The tanks were already on their way shooting away at every target. Some foreboding made Victor turn around and raise his chainaxe where it connected with a hard swung orc axe. Victor saw the biggest orc he had seen so far, snarling down at him and foaming with rage and bloodlust. 'This must be the boss of this horde' Victor thought as he continued to parry attacks by the beast. Somehow Victor knew that this was a foe worth fighting.

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Maxim watched the bombers disappear into the tail. The asteroid would be at the exit point in 34 minutes. Then it all depended on the pilots the combined technology of eldar and humans.

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Victor and his foe battled each others for almost half an hour. They had crossed almost the whole battlefield, and no orc or chaos soldier would dare to intervene in their fight. They reached the still burning wreckage of an orc gargant where Victor was pinned against the wall the the relentless attacks of the orc. Victor made a feint and the orc, seeing an opening in his defense, swung his axe wide to decapitate Victor.

He pivoted on his heels and the orc swung went wild. The momentum of the blow presented the back of the orc to Victor and he took the opportunity to swing his chainaxe deep into the armor of the beast. The armor buckled and Victors axe severed cables, skin, sinew, muscles and bone. The orc let out a cry of surprise and collapsed to the ground, twitching, its eyes still trying to figure out why its body wasn't reacting anymore. Then the eyes went blank and the orc lay still. Victor raised his axe high into the air and bellowed a cry of joy to Khorne.

Then he saw 40 miniature suns appearing in the sky.

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Maxim was sitting in his captains chair again and on the great monitor he saw the eldar torpedoes enter the atmosphere and exploding there.

"Temperature rising exponentially." Hek Torr said. "It's working."

Maxim breathes a sigh of relief as he saw the atmosphere of the planet igniting. A wave of fire washed around the planet and soon he could only see the reddish yellow of a fire that was burning everything it came in contact with.

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Victor knew what he saw. Cyclone torpedoes exploding in the upper atmosphere, igniting the oxygen inside it.

"EVERYBODY TAKE COVER. TITANS, SEAL UP, CYCLONE!!" he yelled before diving headlong into the gargant wreck, crawling as fast as he could. As he reached wider space he started running, searching for a sport as far away as possible from the outside.

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From a distance it looked like the planet was a large gun, firing fiery blasts in every direction, not caring if hitting. A splash of fire rose up and engulfed on of the space hulks. When the fire was gone, so was the space hulk. Another wave of fire spouted in to the chaos fleet, immolating three battleships and numerous smaller ships.

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Victor felt the heat rise around him. He was as far away from outside as he could, squeezing himself in a tight spot and putting what protective material he could find in front of him. The metal started melting and dripped on his armor. It still held, but Victor could feel its heat coming trough it. Then suddenly he felt an invisible presence around him.

And he started screaming.

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"Captain, look." Maxim saw the chaos ships that were still drifting or maneuvering. The heat wave was over and the atmosphere of the planet gone. Nothing could have survived there if it wasn't in a confined space. And even then, the survival chances were minimal without fresh air.

The chaos ships started maneuvering in a strange fashion. Some rammed each other, others started tumbling. Some even exploded.

"What is going on there?" he asked no one in particular. Then suddenly everyone on the bridge started screaming and holding their ears, trying to protect themselves from a sound Maxim couldn't hear.

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It was a scream of pure rage and madness, of an entity being imprisoned for eons and missing a chance of escape.

The bloodless ending of the battle didn't stop Harkanos from reaching out with invisible hands and take what he wanted. He first found the chaos ships with their crew and plucked their souls and life fluids from their body, swallowing them, strengthening himself more and more. Then he found greenskins, and did the same. And then he sensed more blood and the entity that was Harkanos set his shapeless eyes to the Imperial fleet.

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Maxim looked around and couldn't quite make something out of it. Everybody on the bridge lay screaming on the ground, clutching his ears, even the eldar. Some lay already dead, their eardrums burst and blood pouring out of their ears. He saw Khornat looking at him, whose eyes showed a mixture of fear and hope at the sight of him.

"ICON! BLANK!" was the only thing he could articulate before the only thing that came out of him was screaming.

Maxim reached under his shirt and clicked the little button Khornat had shown him. The eyes of the Emperor went out and the screams of the crew abated. As the surviving crew came slowly back to their feet, the Fallos Belt started moving erratically, bending itself in smaller shapes, before vanishing completely.

And Maxim along with his crew saw the stars of the surrounding universe.

The Fallos Belt was gone.

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_Aemos had mixed feelings. On one hand, Harkanos was free and roaming through the warp, masking his presence somehow so Aemos couldn't find him. On the other hand, he was too weak to attack him, so Aemos was save._

_He knew what he had to do. Finding Harkanos before he got too strong to be defeated and destroy his essence._

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"Okay, Inquisitor, what do we do now?" Maxim asked.

After they recovered, they had methodically destroyed every chaos ship and space hulk. They said good bye to the eldar and moved off in different directions.

"Back to sector command. You have to write a report and probably get a medal or so." Khornat answered.

"Pff, writing reports. The worst nightmare of a ship commander. Inquisitor, when you have another vision of the end of the universe then please find another savior."

Both men laughed at that and set off to do their work.

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Victor Harras moved away the last obstacles on his way out of the gargant. His helmet sensors reported no oxygen outside.

When he stepped out, he saw a field filled with wreckage. Any fire was out due to oxygen lack and most vehicles were molten slacks of metal. He saw his titans, 5 of them still standing, not showing if there was any crew alive inside of them. All of them had looked as if molten wax had poured down their bodies.

"This is Victor Harras. If anybody is out there, report."

He waited for a few minutes. Nothing. Then suddenly a cracking voice was heard, combined with a sound of a large engine starting. He turned around and saw the lights in the eyes of the _Flamma Ultrix_ come back to life.

'At least he survived' Victor hthought.

Without command, a door at the foot of the titan opened, allowing Victor to step inside. On his way to the titans bridge crew, Victor swore to take revenge on the man who was responsible for this fiasco and therefore denied him demonhood.

_The end_

_Well folks, this was it. Maximilian Macharius' first big adventure is over. What do you think about it :)_

_This isn't over. Maxim will continue to serve in Imperial Fleet and will have another great task set before him._


End file.
